What it Means to be Human
by RMB1949
Summary: Watch as the Master Chief takes Cortana's advice and finds out which one is the machine and which one is human. His only wish was that she was by his side while he finds out. Takes place after Halo 4, will eventually lead into a different Halo 5.
1. Chapter 1: The Re-Enlisting of Chief

**What it Means to be Human**

 **Chapter 1: The Re-Enlisting of Master Chief Petty Office of the Navy S-117**

The clanging of metal on metal rang out within the floors of UNSC High Command as a giant of a man was being escorted by four armored figures. The giant had brown hair that was faded due to lack of sunlight, cobalt eyes, and was wearing an outdated khaki uniform with more medals and commendations than space on his broad chest.

The armored figures escorting the man were easily recognizable as Spartan-IV's, they were taller and broader than regular marines or even ODSTs, but he still towered over them by a good four inches. The men all stopped at a wooden door with a name plaque on it reading _UNSC High Command:_ _Lord Admiral Terrence Hood_

"Sir," one of the Spartan-VI's barked out as he knocked on the door, "we have Sierra-117 as ordered sir."

The door opened and Hood was a bit surprised, _No armor. His idea? Or Captain Lasky's?_ "Come on in son," Hood spook stepping to the sid to allow the Master Chief entrance. He stopped the others from entering, "sorry boys. Classified. Way beyond your pay grade."

"Sir," the escorte nodded before taking up positions in the hallway out of the main path, already prepared to wait.

"Take a seat John," Hood said gesturing to the reinforced chair. John nodded and sat in the chair reserved for Spartan's stiff as a board. _Geez son, I didn't think anyone could sit at attention_ , the aging admiral thought with an internal chuckle.

"So," Hood began taking his seat and opening a few items on his desk before a projection screen appeared between the two. "I have a three conflicting reports from the main officers on _Infinity_ Chief. But one thing is glaringly clear between them all, do you know what that is son?"

"I disobeyed direct orders and deserted _Infinity_. I broke the chain of command, asked an innocent officer to turn a blind eye to orders and brought shame to the title of Spartan sir," the Chief barked out knowing what he did was wrong. He would never deny what he did, he wasn't wired that way.

"Well there is that," Hood said with a smirk, "but I was referring to something else. Something far more important than a simple redirection of resources."

That took the Chief by surprise and the generally stoic man's face actually showed surprise for once. "Sir, could you please explain," the Chief simply asked.

"Of course," Hood said before throwing the holographic reports to the side and looking John in the eyes with a smile. "Yes you broke chain of command, went against orders, stole a pelican, had an officer go against his orders, but you saved the earth once more. Big deal," Hood's voice was laced with humor through the summary of his events on _Requiem_ and _Infinity_ , "that's all something you probably do before breakfast as your morning workout. At least that's what the boys in PR will say should this ever get further than the UNSC.

"Sir," he spoke out, his voice searching for something. The Chief didn't understand, couldn't understand what was going through the Admiral's mind. Or really the rest of High Command if they were willing to overlook something like this. Personally John thought he should have been in chains being court martialled after recent events.

"What those three reports," he said gesturing to the holographic images to his right, "have in common, is that you acted human. You showed compassion towards Cortana, you showed dedication to your duty, and you showed that no matter what humanity is your top priority by detonating a **Havok** by hand to destroy the _Didact_ and _Composer._ "

Hood then typed on the desk screen some more before two new sets of holographic documents appeared, "there has been a lot of talk in High Command and a lot of pressure from ONI and the Senators to have all the Spartan-II's decommissioned and retired. What sits before you John is two sets of paperwork. The first," he said gesturing to his right, "your retirement paperwork. Completely filled out, will all incentive pay, full benefits, back pay from you early days training, and a small home located here on earth."

"The other sir," the Chief asked apprehensively, the thought of leaving the service was a bit daunting even to him.

Moving his hand he gestured to the one on his left, "re-enlistment as the first shirt for the Spartan branch, directly under Commander Sarah Palmer on _Infinity_ , and incharge of continued training of _ALL_ Spartan branch soldiers," Hood said before taking a breath and continuing, "it's a pretty good deal Chief. Plus there is an on base housing deal since _Infinity_ is only out on patrol six months with one month off for shore leave. Now I can't promise you anything too exciting what with _Infinity's_ primary mission being exploration and discovery of _Forerunner_ worlds and artifacts. But with the largest of the _Covenant_ splinter groups, the ones you ran into on _Requiem_ calling themselves _The Storm Covenant_ , are being lead by a _Sangheili_ named Jul 'Mdama. He fashions himself a _Profit_ of the _Forerunner's_ and goes by the title of The Didact's Hand."

"Is Captain Del Rio the one still in command of _Infinity,"_ John questioned politely.

"Turning tail from a very real threat that _Infinity_ could have very easily handled, trying to separate two of the best damn special ops operators we have, and trying to have a national hero arrested for doing his duty and protecting someone close? Yeah he's been dropped a few ranks, which of course was a shit storm for me, but what can I say? That just isn't the image the UNSC needs," Hood spoke with disdain about the captain that tried to arrest the Master Chief. "We promoted Thomas Lasky to full captain and _Infinity's_ commanding officer."

John nodded before pressing the re-enlistment paperwork,

"So before you get out of here and collect a few things from my secretary," Hood began leaning back and looking at the Chief, "I think this is the first time I've seen you wear the Spartan working uniform and not your amor. How come?"

"The mark-VI armor I was wearing was removed upon medical inspection after my recovery," John began before taking a pause to find the right words to continue, "Captain Lasky suggested I wear the working uniform in it's place until a new one could be order from Seongnam. I believe he didn't want me getting too comfortable in case I was going to be court martialed or retired sir."

"Sounds just like him," Hood nodded touching a few more things on his desk screen. "I believe you will enjoy working under him son, in the meantime my secretary has everything you need for your new position on _Infinity_."

The Master Chief nodded before rising from his chair and offering his hand out to the Admiral. Smiling Hood stood and shook his hand, the two men parting to go about their business.

When the Chief walked out of the room the Spartan-IV's got into formation and began escorting the man through the building once more. After a quick stop to pick up the Chief's checked in datapad that held his new reporting orders, room and house codes, and a message from Hood.

John figured he would read the message later, instead picking the datapad and making his way to the exit and his new ship assignment.

* * *

"Fireteam Crimson," a fair skinned, brown eyed, brown haired woman wearing white armor with a few red accents called out as she entered the ready room. "You ready for your war game," she asked before briefing the team on their simulator run that was about to commence.

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am," came the enthusiastic reply from the four Spartan-IV's wearing different red mark-VII armor.

"Alright then, let's get you guys briefed and into the sim," she said and began with the brief. A simple snatch a grab of varying item's and data from a _Storm Covenant_ base with the newly added _Prometheans_. However she left them off the brief, _I feel bad for not telling them,_ she thought as they filed out of the room. _But sometimes are intel doesn't pick up things, and this is training for the unexpected_ , she continued her inner thoughts as she began to watch the team through the supplied monitor.

She was so engrossed with trying to find their mistakes she almost missed the door being opened and someone walking in.

"No attention at all for the CO, Commander that's setting a bad example," Captain Lasky said with a smirk and humor dripping from his words.

"Stuff it Tom," Sarah said clearly not caring he was her CO.

"Touchy, what's got you on edge?"

"High Command and ONI," Sarah sighed frustrated typing away on her datapad. "They weren't happy with the way the fireteams responded to the new threat of the _Prometheans_ and I have to run the entire roster of fireteams through sims with bad or missing intel to see how they react to changing parameters."

"Ah," Lasky spoke with realization, "the ol' charlie foxtrot training." Lasky was very familiar with what him and fellow bridge officers referred to as cluster fuck training, or referred to as charlie foxtrot in polite company. In flight and officer candacey school they were regularly trained in scenarios where they were meant to run into problems not covered on their brief to see how they were able to handle and rise above the situation.

"Yeah," Sarah nodded keeping a close eye on her Spartan's as they finally encountered the _Prometheans._ It didn't take long before all of Crimson's armors were locked up and the four were "bleeding" out on the ground. "Fuck, another fail," Palmer cursed palming her face with a sigh.

"If you think that's bad take a look at this," Lasky said with a bit of mischief shining in his eyes. The Spartan commander took the offered datapad and began reading. And just like Lasky predicted the look on his fellow officer's face was priceless.

"Tom please tell me this is a fucking joke," Palmer asked practically begging. _Dear god, anything but this,_ she still couldn't be sure this wasn't some sick joke.

"Afraid not," Lasky began with a smirk, "effective tomorrow morning at 0500 Master Chief Sierra-117 will be reporting to you as your senior NCO. He will also take over training of all Spartan fireteams and officers. Straight from Lord Admiral Hood himself."

"How the fuck am I supposed to give that guy orders," Sarah asked more to herself than her CO. "First off he's a fucking legend, second he's saved the entire universe like four times now, and on top of that the guy broke command and went AWOL after getting an order he didn't like. God this is a mistake."

"We can both agree that De Rio made a few bad calls leading up to the Chief doing what he did," Tom began and he did see Sarah relent a bit and he pushed further. "Plus what would you do being backed into a corner like that, knowing that turning tail and running was the wrong answer?"

"Ok good point, so a one time order break in what, 30 years? Acceptable I suppose," Sarah said fully relenting to his point, "but then we get to the fact that I am suppose to give the legend, the Spartan that all Spartans aspire to be, orders. Guy deserves to be an Admiral or retire."

"Apparently he was offered retirement but turned it down in favor of re-enlisting," Lasky said with a shake of his head. _He just doesn't see that he deserves to live the rest of his days in peace._ "As far as commissioning goes, Lord Hood didn't even bother trying knowing he would have turned it down anyway."

"Ugh," Palmer sighed as she began to set up for the next fireteam, "if that is all sir, I have another team to prep."

"Actually you don't. All fireteams are to rest up for the next two days while you and the Chief work out training plans tomorrow. I figured I'd give you and the rest of them today off as well, because knowing the Chief's record, you are all probably going to be going through the grinder."

"Great more good news," Palmer answered sarcastically before sending out a memo to all Spartan fireteams that they have leave for the next two days. But reminding them training started back up the following day and to try an avoid getting too drunk.

"Is that all sir," Palmer asked and was surprised by his negative head shake.

"Afraid not," he said before sending her datapad a few documents. Mostly the denied requisition forms for the Chief's new armor. "It seems the request from Seongnam was rejected; why I have no idea, but I would get the lead out on that. He can't really train with you guys without a new armor model since his was pretty much on it's last legs. I mean he did wear it five years straight through three separate campaigns."

Sarah nodded before asking permission to leave and began making her way out of the ready room and long trip back to her office muttering obscenities the whole way. No one bothered to ask the imposing woman what was wrong, instead preferring to give her space.

* * *

It didn't take John long to arrive back on _Infinity_. After retrieving his datapad he caught the next available pelicin heading to back up and was currently making his way to his new room. It didn't take him long to find it, what with _Infinity_ keeping all Spartan living quarters together in an area of the ship referred to as Spartan Town.

It was an entire deck dedicated to the Spartans and their need for reinforced equipment. Things as simple as chairs that wouldn't break or buckle under their weight, to the highly sophisticated armor stations that were personalized for each Spartan on board.

The living quarters themselves were near the middle of the ship in one of the more heavily reinforced areas. It didn't take the Chief long to find his room, and the irony of it having the same room number as is Spartan tag was not lost on him. _I'm sure Cortana would have something witty to say about it,_ he thought with a smile as he punch in the code from the datapad.

The door pulled into the wall opening up to a modest quarters, with a private bathroom, small desk with standard interface built in, holo tank for AI interface, and a bed actually big enough to fit him. _I'll have to send a letter of thank you to Lord Hood for the bed,_ John mused to himself as he entered and shut the door.

He set his datapad on the desk, before loosening his tie and sitting down on the bed. For the first time in awhile the Chief was left _alone_ with his thoughts and only one thing plagued them. _I failed her,_ he thought with a sigh as he looked at the wall. It was hard to process for him, a man who had seen countless die and barely felt anything aside from passing respect. He felt torn, broken, and lost.

The thought of retirement terrified him to no end, especially now, and was relaxed a slight bit knowing he still had a place in what he considered home. _"Promise me you will find out which one of us was the machine."_

It was an echo, the last moments he had with his dear friends. _Guess it will take me longer to find out,_ he thought with a sigh. Finally gathering the strength and pushing the thoughts aside Chief grabbed the datapad and scrolled to the message from Hood.

Figured you could use a bit of cheering up. Upon your return to Infinity you are to report to r-deck, room-000 as soon as you are able. No rush son, get your bearings first if you can.

UNSC High Command:Lord Admiral Terrence Hood

 _Guess I should go see what this is about,_ John thought as he stood and tightened his tie back up. He grabbed his datapad and began making his way through the _Infinity_ , following the map provided to him on the device. He was deliberate to walk slowly, memorizing as much of the massive ship as possible while making his way to the research deck.

The walk eventually took him to a service elevator where he waited patiently with the science members as it ascended to the research deck. Chief stood alone in the corner taking up as little space as possible for a giant and merely observed the men and woman before him. They were all talking animatedly about one thing or another sharing datapads and assisting each other with small equations during the ride.

He of course was content to watch and observe, _the comradery between them is something to be praised. They don't seem to interested in the glory, but rather the discovery._ Chief felt waves of memories threaten to break free. Memories of his Spartan-II brothers and sisters, memories of Johnson, of both Captain Keys, memories of **her**. _You all were never ones for glory, just duty and honor. To uphold your responsibilities, to show courage in the face of unrelenting odds. And here I stand, a ghost searching for a new purpose._

The rather short ride came to an end as the robotic voice informed him the elevator had reached the r-deck. The giant waited until the science members had step out before joining them in the hall and began to follow the map on his datapad once more. Keeping his pace the same as from s-deck or Spartan Town, John wanted to memorize as much of the ship's layout as possible.

It didn't take him long until his map led him to a supply closet at the end of a winding hallway with a biometric scanner on it. The Chief merely raised an eyebrow at this before placing his hand on the pad and lifting his eye lid a bit higher for the retinal scanner. A few soft beeps, a quite chime and the light on the handprint scanner changing to green the door slid open with a soft hiss.

Unlike what he had believed he would see, a closet filled with various tools for the researchers, he found a new hallway that lead to one door at the very end. His datapad beeped loudly to let him know of an update, looking down showed the map continued on to the room where his true destination lie.

Making his way into the hallway, the door behind him shutting, he got the feeling whatever Lord Hood sent him here for was top secret. The feeling was reinforced by the ONI symbol and a second biometric scanner. Once more he did the required motions before a few soft beeps, quite chime, green light, and a soft hiss; he was now staring into the opening of a lab. Possible the most sophisticated one he had ever seen since his deployment from Reach.

Stepping in he saw a worker sitting in a darkened corner with her back to him. She was wearing a white lab coat and from what John could tell was a bit older due to the greying hair on top of her head. She hunched over writing a few things in a decent sized personal note book, occasionally looking up at one of the holo screens before her.

"Ma'am," he called to her, keeping his place by the door, "Sierra-117 reporting as ordered by Lord Hood." The woman didn't say anything back, but John could tell she had heard him, the dropping of the pen she was using to write with was clue. The two stayed like that for an uncomfortable amount of time before John picked up the faintest sounds of sobbing. _She's crying? Did, did I cause that?_

"Ma'am," John called out a bit more softly as he slowly approached the woman. He placed his hand on her shoulder to which she instinctively patted.

"Oh John," she began in a whisper.

Her knowing his name caught him by complete surprise. The list of people who knew his name he could count on one hand, but it was the voice. He knew that voice better than anyone else, "Doctor Halsey?"

The woman finally turned to face him and his guess was indeed correct. She had more wrinkles than he remembered, her lab coat clung to her dirty blue jumpsuit hiding her figure, but her eyes had never changed. The usually unflinching, curious, blue eyes were still the same. This was the mother of the Spartan project, and as far as John was concerned, his mother.

Faster than he thought she would move from her position she had managed to grab the Chief into a tight hug and cried. She cried into his shoulder for what felt like an eternity for the stoic soldier, who didn't know what to do or how to act in this situation.

She finally quieted down before a light chuckle left her mouth, "can't even hug your _mother_." Her tone was not something he expected or could really place. To him it sounded like mirth mixed with venom when she described herself. "Then again," she said finally pulling away and looking at him with a sad teary eyed smile, "how could I call myself your mother when I am directly responsible for taking you from her?"

"You will always be the Spartan's mother Ma'am," John said evenly without hesitation. He was well aware as an adult that what was done to him as a child was considered cruel and barbaric. But in the end, what was done to him allowed him and others the honor of protecting humanity. It gave them a chance to push back unimaginable odds and avoid the genocide of their entire race.

"You are to good for this world John," she said with a sigh before mentioned him to follow her. "Terrance gave your biometrics a one time use," she stopped at a small work desk in another darkened part of the room before beginning to tap away at a console, "I've been blacklisted by ONI ever since Osman took over. She with the help of a few UEG Senators revoked my acerdations and locked me away, scared of what would happened should the truth ever reach general public.

John nodded and understood. Someone wanted to make their own personal brand of Spartans, it was something High Command was very scared of happening, especially during the War of Insurrection, ONI would not allow that to happen. "So you are being kept off grid on _Infinity_ ," John questioned.

"More or less," she said her attention still focused on the console in front of her. "They know I am too valuable to just put a bullet in and be done with. So I am kept here, essentially a prisoner. But They keep me busy whenever the other members of the research division can't figure something out. Which is too often for my liking."

She tapped one last command before the lights in that area came on and John saw a Spartan Armor Gyro with a brand new set of olive drab Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor. From what John could tell it looked exactly like his mark-VI armor except a bit less bulky. "Terrance figured you might like it," she said with a smirk.

"Why is it down here ma'am," John asked curious as to why it wasn't stored with the other Spartan armors down in Spartan Town's armory.

"Because this isn't just any armor John," she began, "this here is the Mark-VIII Mjolnir Powered _Devastator_ Armor. A bit more high-tech than anything else out there, and definitely more reliable than anything from Seongnam." John could tell by the pride in her voice she was very happy with this armor.

A holo screen appeared in front of him. It followed along with her explanation lighting up in certain areas as she described them, the first being the inner body suit, "first things first the bio-suit. The new titanium nanocomposite design is protected with the same anti-plasma coating as the _Infinity_ 's outer hull. It still has the old heat reducers but it will take a lot more than just your shields failing to bring you down. It still relies on the standard hydrostatic-gel from the first few models; but since it was designed by me and not Seongnam I'm sure I won't find a better replacement for a while."

The next part to light up was the outer armor plates with writing appearing near certain ones, "as for the outer armor we have a new titanium plating method, makes it a bit bulkier than the mark-VII model, but still thinner than your old mark-V or mark-VI armors. Instead of solid plates shaped to form we shaped hollow plates around titanium triangle braces, this gives it greater impact resistant. And of course they are anti-plasma coated as well. All weapon holders are the same but we added a few extra spots as well as these."

When she said that the screen switch to three distinct pieces of the armor that were different from before, his gauntlet, chestplate, and helmet. "First we have your left gauntlet," the glowing holo image of it grew in size compared to the others in front of him. "It has been upgraded with a full hard light interface, fully equipped with ONI's new toy called the Artemis," her eyes softened a bit, "with an entire branch now filled with Spartans, building AIs to pair them up with became too expensive. Most just have basic holo-displays with a few extra add-ons. But the Artemis will give you the same results that Cortana was able to as far as hack, opening doors, finding new routes, tracking targets, and setting waypoints."

"Thank-you ma'am," John said softly. He was glad he didn't have to reject the idea of another AI being in his head, and he could tell it was hard for her to talk about. Cortana was directly created from a scan of the Doctor's brain; and while she held the same brilliance that Halsey seemed to have, she was very much her own person. _She probably looked at her as another daughter_ , Chief thought internally as he looked at the picture Halsey kept of the late Jacob and Miranda Keys

The two shared another moment of awkward silence, this time briefer than the last.

"Also installed in the left gauntlet, and the right as well, are wrist mounted plasma daggers," the holo image showed a wrist and descending down. Between the bio-suit and the armor plating John saw a small set of plasma generators that ignited into a one foot miniature energy sword, "these are just as effective as the Sangiel's plasma swords."

The holo image shrunk back down to the size of the others while the chest plate expanded in size, "next we have the modified chest plate. The clavicle protection you can see is a bit shorter but wider than before. This is to house a total of 8 of the Gyroscopically Stabilized Micro-Missiles found in the Hydra-Launcher; you have 4 on each side."

The chest piece holo image dropped back to standard size while the helmet took its place, "now your helmet is what got the largest of the upgrade. It has all the standard equipment that you've come to know and use but a few extra things that are new. It was a smartlink feature built into your HUD giving you far greater accuracy than ever before. It's thermal imaging now displays in visible light, just displays targets in the red zones. And we added a spatial motion tracker capable of distinguishing targets on different levels, you active the split level feature through the Artemis. Same new titiumian build was done with the helmet so less chance of a sniper round, regardless of type."

The final image shrunk down to size and all three disappeared, and John was speechless. "Ma'am," he began trying to find the right words, "isn't this a bit much?"

Halsey chuckled before handing him the new bio-suit, "for you John I think this is just good enough. Your luck is legendary for getting you back home sure, but what few seem to gather, it is legendary for putting you in situations where others would fail. This is most evident in the fact that you pushed your last two sets of armors well past their working specs. Half the optics in both helmets were completely destroyed. Gel layer was about to fail. Thrusters in operable after first day of use. Impacts from _multiple_ sub-orbit drops which the mark-V and mark-VI were never designed for."

John nodded before stripping down and putting the new bio-suit one, "comfortable," he graveled out with a smirk.

Halsey smiled at the smirk before gesturing to the armor gyro, "ready to put on the last suit you will ever wear?"

"Last suit," John questioned eyebrow raised in confusion. the gyro started to move placing armor on him while Halsey used the bolts to affix it in place on the bio-suit.

"It's a line from a very old movie about aliens," Halsey said as he got into position and she began bolting the olive drab armor onto him, "figured it would fit. Seeing as this is probably the last Mjolnir I will design."

"Last one you will design," John parroted back, questioning the statement.

"Well I am getting up there in age," Halsey said gesturing to her face, "you can't say you didn't notice the wrinkles all over. Even if you did I wouldn't believe you. To good for this world John, you're just too good."

She worked in silence putting the last bit of it on, and when she was finished she took a step back and smiled. "Now that is picture worthy," Halsey said with a smile and before John could put the helmet cradled under his arm on a flash of light from a roof mounted camera blinded him for a second.

A third empty frame on her desk now sported a perfect image of John in his new armor, standing tall and proud, just the way Halsey would always want to remember him. "Now shoo, go on," she said gesturing to the doorway, "I have more work to do today before I can call it quites. Also you will need to report to the armory from here on out to have a engineer put your armor on in the morning and remove it at night. You're on duty day now Chief, no more living in it."

John frowned at the thought of someone else helping him in and out of the armor, "why can't you do it?"

"Blacklisted John," Halsey said with a frown of her own, "but if you're worried about some starry eyed scientist running chit chat, don't. We got you a special buddy, you'll see him once you go to take your armor off."

Halsey started to head back to the darkened corner she was in earlier but was stopped by the sound of John placing his helmet down on her desk. Turning she was surprised to see John stepping toward her and placed her into a short hug, "goodbye...mom."

He let her go, picked up his helmet and secured it on his head, before grabbing his working uniform and leaving the stunned woman in her prison.

Halsey never got back to work, instead she dropped to her knees and cried. She cried for a good while after he left, and whispered to the wind, "goodbye son."

* * *

John had taken the same pathway he originally had used to to find the room where Halsey was being kept. The walk was a bit faster, but he used the time to read up on some of the more basic changes in the suit. He had extra thrusters to allow him for faster sprints and to break through air vents, weaker walls and structures, and reinforced glass. His shields were twice as strong and regenerated three times faster than before. Finally he noticed that both legs had two extra weapon magnet systems installed along with an added one on his lower back bringing his total carrying arment up to six extra weapons, not counting what he could carry.

When the elevator he was on reached Spartan Town, the Chief took off in the direction of his room to drop off his working uniform before heading to the holo simulators. That was definitely one thing he like about _Infinity_ , over half the s-deck was made for training. The simulators were wide rooms carrying _thousands_ of hard light projectors giving the ability to simulate any kind of enemy, any kind of terrain, and any formation he could think of.

Finding the simulators was easy enough, he simply pulled the ship's map with the Artemis and set a waypoint. He felt a simple test before a training session with it would be best. _I'm just glad this thing is fairly intuitive,_ he thought as he pressed a few more commands seeing his motion tracker in the right hand corner tilt and show lights between three levels. _Finally a motion tracker that will tell me_ where _they are, this would have been nice to have at any point during the war. Maybe less would have died._

John was so absorbed thinking back over past missions and friends long gone that he failed to notice a group of Spartan-IV's talking in the corner of the training simulators as he entered. John walked into the room and saw the setup consoles on the far side of the room in front a set of lockers. Quickly making his way over; John hooked in his datapad and pulled began setting a sim run.

 _Now that is interesting,_ John thought as he saw one of the menu options under the simulator control settings. He pressed it and saw a set of mission under a code name called firefight, _these are...are my last few campaigns._ Chief couldn't believe it, some of the most pivotal theaters in his career where all here, but with a small message at the top,

Figured you'd wanna break in the armor. We haven't been able to get some of you newer missions on here, but this is more of a test for you to use the Artemis, and break in the new armor. 

H.

The Chief walked over to the lockers after confirming the simulator settings and loaded on the wireframe gear. Once he entered it would take on the look and feel of the real thing, with fully interchangeable wire frame mags. There was one downside to this type of setup, technically the trainee had an unlimited supply of ammo, as when the wire mag was placed back into the pouch for 15 seconds it would trigger automatic reload.

As the chief began looking through the massive weapons locker he kept this thought in mind, _it's going to be a bit of a clean up when I am done, but in battle there is no "unlimited ammo"._ He mind wandered to all the times he had to pick up alien weaponry and "figure it out" on the fly or with Cortana's help. _But I don't have that help anymore, nor the wit you brought to it. Like that time I almost stabbed myself with a plasma sword._

He was so engrossed in memories for once it kinda of scared him. He had never had this much down time to think on past missions aside from after action reports and watching camera footage to be better next time. To be strong, faster, to make better calls. But now he could reflect on them, and it scared him. Thankful he was pulled from his thoughts by tapping on his shoulder plate.

"Hey man," a Spartan-IV said. He was wearing black armor with gold accents, a strange load out of a wire-shotgun held in his right hand, and a wire-Spartan laser on his back. "You must be new, right."

John took only a second to respond finding the soldier's rank on his breastplate, "affirmative Sargeant."

"Alright then. I want you to head back to the armory and have them change the color of your arom," the Sergeant spoke out, hoping to pull rank on the soldier.

"Excuse Me?"

"Look, I don't know if people stopped talking about it in training anymore," the Sergeant began aggravated, "but Olive Drab is the Master Chief's color. It's something no one has the write to wear except him."

"I apologize if there is any confusion Sergeant, but I just received my armor and have not added my rank to it. I am Sierra-117," John spoke out evenly. Though internally he was very weired out about the situation. _I have my own armor color? Why would they not approve? It is simply a color._

"You're shitting me," the Sergeant said taking a step back in surprise.

John merely turned back to the locker and finished grabbing his gear. He attached a wire-assault rifle to the back magnet, two wire-smgs on his lower chest magnets, four wire-magnums on the front thigh and side thigh magnets, he then loaded the fake missiles into their launchers. Finally he grabbed two ammo belts, one for the magazine weapons, and one for his Hydra Missiles.

John turned finding the Spartan-IVs still there, "can I help you four with something?"

"It's, it's just we've never met a legend before. It's pretty exciting for us," one of the others in the back said. The one who spoke wore black armor but with ODTS camo accents, and what looked like pieces of ODST armor along with an ODST styled helmet; his armor showed the rank of Gunnery Sergeant. "See your about to run a simulation. Mind if we tag along," the Gunny asked with a chuckle.

John shut the locker without facing it and began making his way to the entrance silently, the other Spartans thinking they had pissed him off were about to start leaving before John spoke up, "do you think you can keep up?"

"Do you," the Gunny asked with a grin, placing his hand into a fist with and pinky out and pushing it against his helmet.

Chief nodded before pressing the button, the four men following him into the ready room. "What are your names Spartans," the Chief asked from while the field set up and the door behind them closed.

"Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck," the one with ODST like armor said with a chipper tone.

Chief took in his weapons load out, wire-assault rifle along with a smg,

"Sergeant Taylor H. Miles, but everyone calls me Dutch," the Spartan who tried to pull rank said with a bit of reluctance in case the Chief was still mad.

John gave him a second over and noticed that his armor was more set for heavy combat, a bit thicker in areas and smaller visor. He had a wire-spartan laser and wire-silenced SMG.

"Lance Corporal Kojo Agu, everyone calls me Romeo, cause I love the ladies."

Turning John saw the fourth member, his armor was fairly standard and in keeping with the color scheme of the team, black, with a few red accents. His Helmet like Buck's stood out and was something of a sniper helmet. Different scopes and vision settings, which John assumed was for the wire-sniper rifle in his hands and the wire-DMR on his back.

"Lance Corporal Michael Crespo, and like those two idiots everyone calls me Mickey.

John turned to look at the fourth one and saw once again black armor with grey accents, but his resembled a standard armor the most expect his helmet and layout didn't make any sense to him. The Spartan's helmet had a huge visor that he assumed stretched from ear to ear and well up into his hairline, which John find incredibly strange. The layout was even weirder to John with him holding a wire-shotgun with a wire-rocket launcher on his back. _What in the world kind of layout and armor is that?_

"Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117," John spoke getting ready as the hard light projecters came on and everyone's weapons went "live",

 **AN: YES I KNOW THE WIRE-WHATEVER WEAPON NAME WAS ANNOYING.** **I did too but I wrote it like that so no one tried to point out a plot hole in the training with damaging the ship and what not. This room is pretty much a holo-deck from Star TreK rip off.**

"That's it, no name," Buck asked pulling his MA5 from his back and unlatching the safety as the counter on the door began counting down.

"My name is unimportant," Chief responded pulling his own MA5 and shouldering it as the counter hit the 10 second mark.

"Either he thinks we are incompetent or unimportant," Romeo grumbled.

"Shut it Romeo, if the Chief wants his privacy he can have it," Buck braked out.

"Sure stick up for the robot," Romeo shot back.

Before Buck could chew Romeo a new one Chief's voice rang out with deadly seriousness and he sprinted through the now open doors, "we are sprinting this. We have 12 minutes get to it Spartans."

The others ran behind a bit, Romeo switching to his DMR instantly seeing they were within a UNCS ship set up. "What's the play Chief," Romeo asked falling in line pretty quickly.

"Scuttling of the _Pillar of Autumn,_ beginning of Alpha Halo campaign," John said running into his first set of enemies, the Grunts that almost made it to the bridge. _Let's see how this new armor stacks up_.

"You mean we are going to be running your **Halo** campaign, like the whole thing," Dutch asked stunned shooting an Elite dead as the rounded a corner with his M7S silenced-SMG.

"Not the whole thing," John stated casually as he rush two Elites and stuck them with plasma grenades; both dying in a shower of blue death. "Just a few notable ones up through Delta Halo campaign," John continued while blowing away a line of Grunts in perfect head-shots.

"What the hell did you get us into Gunny," Mickey asked blowing away an Elite with his M45E Shotgun. He however missed a suicide Grunt that rushed him and was almost hit by it however a bullet entering its head put a stop to his "death".

Romeo picked it off with a well placed DMR shot, the bullet ripped through its target with enough for to throw the dead Grunt back and send its grenades flying. One stuck an Elite while the other landed in a crowd of terrified Grunts; both detonated killing their enemies.

"One other thing Chief said finishing off the Elites in the mess hall, "the auto reload system is off." Chief then strapped his MA5 to his back, pulling out two magnums and heading out of the mess hall.

"We really stepped into it didn't we boys," Buck said shaking his head before following after the Chief. _I know we can pick up full hard light weapons in here but we can't mag swap on them, is there really going to be enough for all of us,_ Buck questioned internally. The group caught up with the Chief in a double level room tearing through everything, "there is no way he can use the smartlink with **2** weapons," Buck shouted as he blew away an Elite on the top platform.

"Honestly Gunny," Romeo began as he picked off four Grunts with perfect headshots from the top floor, "I don't think he's using it."

"No kidding," Dutch said throwing a few frag grenades behind a portable shield generator killing two Jackals and thee Grunts.

"Holy fuck," Mickey yelled watching the Chief use his thruster to jump to the second level, "are those wrist mounted Plasma Swords? Where the fuck can I get some of those!"

Once John reached the second level, he put up his Magnums and ignited the wrist mounted Plasma Swords and began tearing into the Elites. Blocking the forward one's downward strike with his left blade, stabbing forward with a right jab impaling the Elite before slashing to the right. The Chief used the Elite's body, a quick twist of his arm and he held it by the neck, as a shield as he dashed forward with his thursters. He slammed into one of the remaining three, the one in the back of a diamond formation.

The force of the impact between the superheavy Spartan ramming it killed it instantly, dropping the other dead Elite, Chief pulled the SMGs free and blew away the remaining two. He dropped low while spinning to avoid plasma fire, as it sailed over his head the 5X23mm M443 caseless rounds shredded their shields and bodies.

"Come on Spartan's we are almost there," Chief spoke mentioning for them to follow as he returned the SMGs to their holders. The others shared a look before hitting thrusters and following there they headed into the maintenance shafts that were crawling with Grunts. But as the followed the realised that he was one step ahead of every enemy, like he _knew_ where they were going to be.

 _How many times has he re-watched this footage, how many times has he mentally run this gauntlet to stay this far ahead? Is this the difference between a class II and a class IV,_ Buck thought before mentally growling. _What am I saying? We IVs can bring it just as hard, time to stop letting the legend do all the work._

"Mikey, Dutch," Buck called out, "break off to the right and left up here, spartan bash those doors open and keep the enemy focused. Romeo, the Chief and I will gut em from the middle. If that's that good with you Master Chief?"

"Good call Sergeant Buck," John spoke firing away with his Assault Rifle, blasting another Grunt away. It didn't take the group long to hit the other tunnels; Mikey and Dutch broke off and sprinted a headed to breach their chaft doors first. "Breach!"

Mikey and Dutch both hit their thrusters smashing into the maintenance shaft doors pushing them off their hinges and into two Elites. The force of the metal men and doors pushed both Elites into the wall behind them, killing them instantly. Both began firing practiced ease and grace. Dutch's SMGs tearing into the Grunts and scattering the Elites. Mikey was able to pick off two of the six Elites waiting for them before the rest of the team burst through.

Buck had taken point switching in a tight squeeze between the Chief and the wall, began tearing into an Elite with a perfect headshot grouping with his MA5. Taking out the Elite with half the magazine Buck turned on another and unloaded the rest of the magazine into one on the right while thrusting left and keeping out of its firing line.

Romeo lined up his shot over Chief's shoulder and once the Elite's shield was depleted he opened fire tearing into it's head splattering fake blood on the wall. Lining up one of the remaining two Romeo kept firing over Chief's shoulder taking the Elite down with the rest of his magazine.

As Chief emerged from the maintenance shaft he saw Buck finished the last Elite off with a Helljumper Toothpick he pulled free from where it was attached on his left clavicle plate. To John the move was fluid and perfect, _he has to have done that before, when he was an ODST; impressive._ And it was, Buck side stepped the last Elite grabbing it's arm that had tried to run him through holding it at bay with his left hand. He was spinning the second his hand touch the alien arm, placing his rifle on his back. He continued the spin pulling the massive combat knife free from its sheath in a reverse grip in his right hand; ramming it into the back of the Elite's skull killing it instantly.

"Nice job Spartans," the Chief said with a nod to the carnage. Before moving to an escape pod door, "well gentlemen let's head to the next mission."

"Fuck me," Romeo muttered while the others piled in behind them.

* * *

The simulator viewing rooms were packed with Spartans all trying to get a glimpse of Alpha-Nine work with the _Master Chief_. Mickey had sent out a holopad message too a few buddies on fireteam Crimson who passed the news to other fireteams; eventually as many Spartans as could fit were in the view room watching the group plow through the Covenant carrier _Truth and Reconciliation_.

 _All the stats say it, all the eggheads comment on it; but FUCK Spartan-IIs are in a class all on their own,_ Sarah thought as she watched the group clear another hanger before moving on through the ship trying to locate the captured Captain Keys.

"This is something else. And to think he did this all on his own," the only non-Spartan there, Captain Thomas Lasky commented watching Chief single handedly take down two Hunters. His thoughts taking him back to the night he met the Master Chief; however he was stirred from those memories by Sarah speaking again.

"His own," she breathed out amazed by the performance. "I can barely figure out how the _five_ of them can pull this off let alone him by _himself_. Alpha-Nine is one of our better fireteams for sure. Vertenna ODST that were in-rolled in some of the heaviest combat and first generation Spartan-IVs like myself, and he is leading them by a good distance. His kill count is insane."

Lasky nodded and added something else to her analysis, "But from your reports that I've read it would seem Alpha-Nine is performing at a better pace than normally. I think his experience in leading regular marines into impossible scenarios and coming out on top might be lending a hand there."

"Definitely," Sarah confirmed, "but I will say this. I am glad he is taking over training for the Spartan fireteams. If he can take a unit that is a cohesive as Alpha-Nine and make them more effective in just two simulation runs; I can't wait to see what he will do over the next few years."

"Sounds like someone is feeling better about this," Tom shot back with a smirk.

"A bit," Sarah blushed, "I mean he is a legend after all. But shut up they are about to start the next mission." Sarah was a bit disappointed as Tom pulled some of her attention from the finally bit on the last simulation run. Everyone quieted down as the Chief began speaking in the ready room, and she saw a few use the quick change locker to swap out heavy weapons, and long range weapons.

* * *

"Alright listen up," Chief began as soon as the entered the ready room to wait on the reset. "Change out your weapons to close quarters only," he began before punching a few commands on the Artemis, "also some other news. As of this moment all our armor capabilities and strengths are limited to that of a mark-V. I am not going to lie to you, this was possibly the second hardest mission of my career."

That took Alpha-Nine by complete surprise as they swapped a few weapons out and reloaded on grenades. "This is the _Library_ on the _Alpha Halo._ This place is covered in flood and will overwhelm you quickly. Follow my lead, and when you are on the last few rounds for a magazine drop the gun and pick up one of the enemy's dropped ones. I promise you it will have more ammo than yours."

"Uh Chief," Dutch spoke up a bit nervous, "you know that we can't mag swap on the completely hard light weapons dropped from the enemy's right?"

"I am aware Sergeant Dutch," John said chambering a round on his rifle before shouldering it getting ready as the counter reached 10 seconds. "This will be a test the other Spartans will be doing for me to evaluate their skills. Think of it as scavenge and survive."

The members of Alpha-Nine nodded each shoulder a weapon, the door hit 0 and as one the five moved into the _Library._

 **AN:**

 **DUN DUN DUAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!**

 **I wrote a halo thing! Yay! Woo! Rejoice!**

 **A few things**

 **1) Sorry for the wire-weapon name thing again**

 **2) I am not, nor have I even been in the military. If something doesn't line up with your view to how I am having in run I am sorry. But please also remember that this is a FICTIONAL military and I have full control to do what I want. I will try to refrain from anything too out of order but ya know.**

 **3)No Cortana will not be coming back**

 **4)Chief is going to development a form of schizophrenia as a way to help him cope with emotions. He will hear the voices of Cortana, Johnson, and both Keys. But as he grows and comes to terms with his emotions they will fade.**

 **5)I am making all his augmentations part of his DNA after what the Librarian did to him. Yes its cliche ffing but eh. it helps with the statment above and what I plan to do which is…**

 **6) Sarah Palmer and John-117 relationship. To long to explain why now, but I will at some point.**

 **Until then folks.**

 **AN 11/28 Update - Caught a plot hole so I fixed it. It was in the meeting with Halsey and John talking about her being blacklisted.**


	2. Chapter 2: Scavenge and Survive

**What it Means to be Human**

 **Chapter 2: Scavenge and Survive, "How the F*CK did you survive?**

" _Alright listen up," Chief began as soon as the entered the ready room to wait on the reset. "Change out your weapons to close quarters only," he began before punching a few commands on the Artemis, "also some other news. As of this moment all our armor capabilities and strengths are limited to that of a mark-V. I am not going to lie to you, this was possibly the second hardest mission of my career."_

 _That took Alpha-Nine by complete surprise as they swapped a few weapons out and reloaded on grenades. "This is the Library on the Alpha Halo. This place is covered in flood and will overwhelm you quickly. Follow my lead, and when you are on the last few rounds for a magazine drop the gun and pick up one of the enemy's dropped ones. I promise you it will have more ammo than yours."_

" _Uh Chief," Dutch spoke up a bit nervous, "you know that we can't mag swap on the completely hard light weapons dropped from the enemy's right?"_

" _I am aware Sergeant Dutch," John said chambering a round on his rifle before shouldering it getting ready as the counter reached 10 seconds. "This will be a test the other Spartans will be doing for me to evaluate their skills. Think of it as scavenge and survive."_

 _The members of Alpha-Nine nodded each shoulder a weapon, the door hit 0 and as one the five moved into the Library._

* * *

Chief took point shooting as he ran through the door, the assault rifle bucking in his grip as he tore through the hallway blasting away with perfect accuracy. John had entered the fabled _Spartan Time_ as he engaged the first enemy. Everything slowed around him as he lined up his shots; as he squeezed the trigger the powerful 7.62mm full metal jacket rounds tore through the heads of infected hosts.

While John kept his focus on the bodies of the attackers; Alpha-Nine was tearing through infected forms and carries, though they weren't as effective as the Chief. They weren't use to the weight of the mark-V, nor the lack of smart link to line up shots. Instead they had a solitary cursor that lite up when you were most likely to hit something, and their frustration was building.

"How in the hell did the IIs ever hit _anything_ , this is ridiculous," Buck shouted as he laid into a carrier form with his assault rifle. Mikey and Dutch taking flanking positions shooting at any spore forms with their SMGs, their shots going wide, but the fragile bodies detonating from the force of the bullets.

"Couldn't tell ya Gunny," Romeo said bringing up the rear blasting at anything that got back up. _I didn't actually believe the stories about zombie like behavior. Guess I should've,_ he thought blowing another infected form apart as it tried to take the group out from behind.

 _I can't believe he fought through this alone_ , Dutch thought as he reloaded his SMG. _This is daunting with_ **five** _of us,_ he began unloading on spores that just broke free from a pre-exploded carrier thanks to his fireteam leader.

 _He's gotta be running low on ammo soon_ , Mickey thought keeping an eye on the Chief. _Still though, the legends of what he could do don't even hold a candle to the real deal. This guy is a beast._

Mickey was re-adjusting his aim to a group of incoming spore forms when he saw the Chief break formation. Running forward, leaving Buck to take his spot as point, he saw the hulking armor figure target an Elite infected form. _How can he move so fast in this old shitty armor,_ he thought watching the Chief reach the Flood form in his opinion too fast. Just before the Spartan reach the Flood form he flipped the rifle in his hand, holding it by the fore-grip, the butt jutting straight back; and before Mickey's eyes used it to club the head off the infected form.

"What the, how the, just...fuck," Buck said having taken the forward position getting front row view to the massive figure's attack.

The others could just stare in amazement before remembering the battle raging around them, the reminder was when John had used the now liberated hard light constructed plasma rifle to kill a second infected form trying to sneak up behind them. "Don't fall behind Spartan's," was all he said to them before turning and continuing down the corridor blasting away at everything in his path.

"I'm with the big guy on this," Mickey commented cheekily before rushing ahead and into combat with the Chief.

"Same," Dutch said following after the two.

Romeo and Buck shared a look for sighing and shouldering their weapons. "If he could do it, we could do it. Right Gunny," Romeo joked as the two began running and firing, buckshot and 7.62mm rounds tearing through any left over enemies as they caught up.

"To be honest," Buck began but had to pause as he sidestepped a human infected form before blowing it away from the back. This close Buck couldn't miss the headshots and blew its head clean off with a small burst from the rifle. "Sorry about that," he said re-orienting himself to face the oncoming enemies, "as I was saying, to be honest, I don't think _anyone_ could truly keep up with him currently."

"Why is that," Romeo asked curiously taking out a carrier before swapping weapons and blowing the spore forms away with SMG fire.

"Just look at this," Buck gestured around at everything going on with his head, continuing to pour fire down range as they closed the small gap that had formed earlier. "I've read the files, we all did in Spartan-IV training, everyone knew there was camera footage to back up the file, no one but High Command had seen it. But here we are fighting an endless horde of enemies, barely making it through, and he did this **ALONE**. This mission was pulled from his camera footage, and there hasn't been a single other Marine or ODST this entire time. How does someone push through this mess and stay sane?"

Before Romeo could ponder on this, the two heard John speak up in the com-links, "when everything around you is chaos, you must find and steel you courage." His voice was firm was he picked up a discarded needler and began unloading into two more forms encroaching on their formation, "this is especially true when you are stranded alone. No commanding officer to give you orders, to direct the next mission. You have to trust in your duty, trust in your training, and have faith that you will make it out."

John dropped the now empty Needler, picking up a Plasma Pistol before unloading on more enemies, alternating between charge shots and standard bolts, "I have never thought of myself as some great or inspiring soldier. I am merely Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Sierra-117 Spartan-II commando. I trust the training I was given to accomplish the missions assigned to me, nothing more, nothing less."

The members of Alpha-Nine shared embarrassed chuckles having just remembered that their com-link was shared with the giant. _Great now we look like a bunch of gossiping school girls finally meeting their crush. Just great,_ Buck thought with a sigh blowing away another carrier.

"With all do respect Master Chief," Dutch said dropping his SMG to pick up a fallen shotgun. Pumping rounds into the chest of an attacking infect Elite, "I doubt anyone could pull this off alone, except yourself. Cause ya done it already."

John's next words surprised all of Alpha-Nine again, "by the time I am done training all of the active Spartans on _Infinity_ , that statement will not be true."

The entirety of Alpha-Nine paused at his words before sharing a quick look between each other. the shared sentiment of, _we are FUCKED._

* * *

Lasky had seen some funny sights in his life. He had seen service men & women drunk off their asses to the point it was surprising they were even standing. He had seen comdey movies, and tv shows that left him in stitches. He had seen a full fledge bear riding a unicycle juggling at a fair once when he was a kid at a circus. But his new funniest moment was when the other Spartan-IVs and their Commander heard what the Master Chief said to Alpha-Nine.

 _By the time I am done training all of the active Spartans on_ Infinity, _that statement will not be true,_ the words had rung out from the speakers; and with it an audible gulp came from the whole crowd. Then after a few seconds of silence, Commander Sarah Palmer summed up everyone's thoughts with the most perfect statement ever in the Captain's opinion, " **fuck me!** "

Lasky was trying very hard to keep his chuckles at bay, "when they picked him for training, what more did you expect," he asked the Commander. His tone was jaunty and she could tell he was baiting her.

"Captain Lasky," Sarah began all serious as her Spartans began to converse quietly amongst themselves at the news, "shut the fuck sir."

At that Tom lost is, and could no longer contain his laughter where he promptly laughed himself to the deck. The gathered Spartans having missed the exchange between Commander and Captain, but all of them knowing they were screwed.

* * *

The team had been fighting level through level of the Library for the last two hours straight, and while John seemed no worse for ware, Alpha-Nine was starting to show signs of weariness. Shot's began streaking wide, reaction times slower, more enemies getting within their fire screen.

When John began to notice this he started to fall back closer to the group of Spartan-IVs to give them a better hand and an extra cross firing lane. Taking a quick moment Chief check the Artemis and saw they were almost to the elevator's top level, where the mission would end. "One level remaining Spartans," he called out dropping his left arm before taking aim again. He fired, and hot plasma shot from the end of a liberated plasma rifle ripping and burning through the heads of oncoming infected forms.

"You heard the Chief," Buck shouted. He was exhausted, worn-out, and sore. Two hours of fighting an endless swarm of enemies, on top of constantly keeping an eye on the ammo gauge, and then when low switching out was taking its toll on the Spartan-IV. "Let's show him we can push hard till the end," he finished dropping the Magnum he had found in favor of a shotgun.

"Alpha-Nine knows how to bring it," Dutch shouted firing into a carrier with a full plasma pistol charged shot. The initial force of the shot causing the form to explode and release all of its spore forms. However the plasma from the shot showered down on them after destabilizing from the impact and explosion of the carrier form, burning them all to ash.

Suddenly a loud boom was heard and a rocket flew through the formation and into a group of charging infected forms, destroying them in a shower of body parts. "Please," Mickey said with a smile before sighting in another group and firing, "we wrote the book on how to bring it!" Mickey dropped the empty rocket launcher he found laying around after they had taken out a group of infected. He pulled free a plasma rifle and rejoined the others in the final push.

Romeo didn't say anything, just let a fully charged plasma bolt fly point blank into an infect forms face, ripping the assault rifle out of its dieing hands. He quickly turned and began firing on the group of enemies between them and the elevator.

Alpha-Nine and the Master Chief made the final push through the last group of enemies and reached the elevator controls. Working quickly he activated them opening a door of solid light in the simulation before the group entered.

"Holy shit," Romeo finally spoke up, hunched over breathing hard in his helmet.

All of Alpha-Nine was either breathing hard hunched over or relaxing against a wall clearly wore out. They hadn't realized it but the three simulations they did run with the Chief had eaten up three and a half hours, and with only two five minute breaks in between the fighting, the Spartan-IVs were exhausted.

Pulling up the Artemis, John began clearing the simulator que and setting it for auto sweep to pick up the wireframe weapons laying in the training area by the group. _Makes cleanup easy and non-essential,_ John thought to himself with a smile. His mind wandered to the training exercises his Spartan class was run through, and how it was universally hated that they had to scour the training field for dropped weapons and gear.

Once the green light was off the team's hard light weapons faded and the back door unlocked, "good job Spartans," John nodded to them before opening the door and stepping out.

 _What in the world,_ John thought as he saw the room filled with stunned Spartan-IVs. He looked at the viewing screen and saw it replaying the last few minutes of the simulation run they just did. _It would seem it got out that I was running simulations,_ his thoughts continued as he scanned the room before laying eyes on a smiling Captain Lasky and a very annoyed Commander Palmer.

Immediately John's training snapped him into attention calling out, "officer on deck." The members of Alpha-Nine snapping to attention as well having just stepped out of the ready room.

"At ease Chief, Alpha-Nine," Lasky said approaching them, "and take off that armor Alpha-Nine; grab some early chow, you deserve it after that last run." The Spartan-IVs nodded and with a quick word of thanks to the Captain while they began a slow trudge out and down to the armory. Turning to face John, Lasky smiled again, "it's good to see you already interacting with the new Spartans Chief. But maybe next time you can run them all through on something easier."

 _Easier,_ John thought with an internal chuckle, his mind wandering to Sergeant Johnson. "Sir," Chief said seriously, "I have seen regular non-augmented marines do amazing things. One was even able to keep up with me."

"Avery Johnson," Lasky asked with a soft smile. A nod from the Spartan after a brief pause and he continued, "don't look surprised under that visor Spartan, I've read your files," the Captain joked.

"Sir," Chief nodded before heading over to his datapad and setting up a new run. Restocking his wire-frame weapons with the same load out as before.

"Back at it after three and a half hours straight? Isn't that a bit much, especially on your day off Chief," Lasky questioned, his tone almost patronizing.

"I still have to assess the full capabilities of this new armor sir," John said closing the locker and turning to face the man.

"Very well," Lasky sighed out after a pause gauging the man, _he isn't going to relent. Still though there is only one person on board that could have made that armor for him. Was it ONI's commission, or Hoods? Something's going on at High Command_.

As John passed him, Lasky noticed most of the Spartans were hanging around waiting to watch the rest of the run and Lasky got a terrible idea, _I'm gonna get sucker punched later for this_ , _but who better than to show him all the armors new features than the best in the mark-VII?_ "Commander," Lasky spoke up in his official order giving voice, drawing her attention, "get geared up and in the run with the Chief. Let's see the two best Spartans in action."

 _I am sooo going to kill you Lasky,_ Sarah thought as she mumbled cursors to the lockers selecting a load out. "Suggestions Chief," Palmer barked out staring at the weapon choices.

"First mission is the Battle for _Ciro_ station, second mission is the assassination of the Prophet of Regret, third will be run same as the _Library,_ with our armors set to the old mark-VI settings, as it was my most difficult mission to date."

"What is the third mission," she asked pausing at her last weapon choice, she had started to load up for a mixture of long and short range after the first two mission his listed.

"The raid on _High Charity_ to search for the index, another scavenge and survive exercise the others will run," the Chief spoke about raiding the Covenant Holy City as though he was planning on taking a walk in a park.

 _Tom Lasky, you are a dead man_ , Palmer mentally screamed pulling free her final weapon of choice.

Palmer's load out consisted of two magnums on each thigh plate, an assault rifle on her back, and oddly enough to the Chief's surprise a battle rifle with a sling. _Clever,_ he thought as she grabbed two ammo belts, a few grenade pouches, and one deployable cover. _Solid load out, planning for surprise with the deployable cover,_ John thought looking over her gear. "Commander Palmer," he spoke with a bit of praise, "I believe I am going to enjoy working with you."

The was silence in the room as everyone stared at the pair. Sarah quickly secured her helmet to hide the impending blush of embarrassment. _What am I? A sixteen year old schoolgirl,_ she thought bitterly about her want to hide a blush in the first place.

"Bit forward there, eh Chief," Lasky asked with a grin and wink.

John realized he had called the Commander out in public with a surprise compliment. _I didn't mean to say that out loud,_ the Master Chief sighed to himself. "I apologize for the forwardness ma'am, it has been awhile since I've worked with an operator that thinks about the mission before selecting loadout. Most I run into pick their favorite weapon over mission parameters."

 _Of course it's something as mundane as that,_ Sarah thought shaking her head feeling even further embarrassed.

"Well a full vote of confidence from the Master Chief himself," Lasky chuckled with a grin at Sarah, "see? Told ya we picked the right gal for the job." Lasky knew Sarah had been a bit embarrassed reading the Chief's words incorrectly. But he also knew she constantly grappled with the feeling that she wasn't good enough to be the Commander of the Spartans, especially with legends still walking around. He had hoped his words would inspire her despite his crass delivery.

"Despite your crass delivery _Captain_ ," she spoke with venom, "I appreciate the memo, sir."

"Well then you two go have fun," Lasky said with a wave as the two entered the simulation ready room.

"Is he always like that," John asked as the countdown clock started.

"Pretty much," she said grabbing the battle rifle on the sling.

Chief took the time to inspect it and found it to be a good idea. _The sling is built into an attachment on the shoulder plate. Titanium bi weave, capable of electromagnetic shaping. She can keep it out of the way in battle when it runs out. No auto reload feature though wonder what she will do knowing she may have to drop it later._ "Ma'am, while I applaud the use of the sling and battle rifle setup for more armament. But with the auto reload sequence disabled there is not unlimited ammo, wouldn't that loadout become cumbersome," John warned again to be cautious.

"I had that in mind when I selected this load out Chief," Sarah nodded to him confirming her choice.

"10-4 Spartan," Chief said shoulder his assault rifle as the counter his ten, "I apologize if this is uncomfortable Commander but I will take lead in these simulations."

"Normally I'd argue, but you've done them. You've got the intel," she said. She knew trying to take lead would be suicide in any of Chief's old missions if the files and after action reports were anything to go by. "You tell me where to go and what to kill, and I'll show you how Spartan-IVs really bring it," she bolster at the legend.

"Affirmative Commander," John spoke as the door opened. Then the orders came flying from the Spartan-II, "we have exactly 30 minutes to reach the bomb planted on the lower hanger. Let's get to it."

They rushed out and down a flight of stairs to a room being fortified by a group of naval personnel wearing nothing but dress whites. _This is from his helmet cam. Why was he wearing his armor to a ceremony,_ she question as one of them barked out orders.

Feel the fire on that bulk head. They are coming in through that door, let's get tactical. The AIs around them all cheered and Sarah head the sound of bolts freeing and safeties being released.

Then she saw something on the bulkhead doors. _What the fuck is...oh fuck,_ she thought as a red dot on the blast doors expanded in size. _Why didn't I bring a heavy weapon,_ she thought with grim determination as she gripped her battle rifle a bit harder. _Aim for the empty plates in the armor. Back is best target,_ she reminder herself, knowing their was only one thing that could penetrate blast doors.

Suddenly her fears were confirmed when two massive armored hulking figures stormed out of the rubble from when the blast doors finally detonated, firing small green bolts of plasma at the gathered personnel. Before anyone could do anything against the Hunters eight Hydra missiles tore through the corridor; all finding vital openings in the hulking mass. _Holy shit,_ Sarah thought watching them explode in orange blood, body parts, and blue armor.

 _I wish I had this armor through the whole Halo campaign,_ Chief thought while reloading his missiles with his left hand. While his right clutched his assault rifle, blasting away at a group of Grunts that were coming in from behind the Hunters. Once his missile launchers were re-armed, Chief steady the weapon with his free left hand, sprinting down the corridor blasting Elites away with perfectly grouped headshots. The rifles 7.62mm ammo tearing through the Elite's' shields and then heads after a grouping of 10. With 30 rounds a magazine the Chief was already swapping, but instead of magazines he dipped down picking up a plasma pistol with his left hand and a rifle with his right.

 _Get your ass in gear Spartan,_ Sarah shouted at herself before sprinting down the hallway full thruster. She caught up to the Chief before passing him and leaping down into an open hanger. "It's time to do what grunts do, and pound the ground," Sarah shouted igniting a small booter option in her thrusters. She slammed into an Elite full force, pushing it to the ground killing it by crushing its rib cage. The Grunts surrounding the Elite were frozen by the shock wave of force allowing Sarah to grab her Magnums. Pulling the guns free, the Commander targeted the methane tanks on the stunned guns, detonating them in bluish flames as she twirled around firing.

John was impressed with the idea to use the thrusters in such away, _these IVs are very clever. They don't have our full strength so they use the force from the thrusters to compensate. Wonder what would happen if I tried it?_ Chief's thoughts turned to surprise again as he caught sight of the slung battle rifle, _the sling is rigidly formed to the back of the armor plate. I wonder how fast its draw time is._

No sooner had he thought that did the Command put up her magnums as she sprinted to her right, and summoned forth the battle rifle. Activating the sling was easy enough, just select it from the HUD with the correct gesture and the weapon sprang from under the shoulder to perfect firing highet.

The sling also acted as a sort of chest mounted stabilizer, and if a Spartan trained long enough with it and the smartlink system, they could be incredibly deadly. Sarah was one of these few, one who spent tireless hours going over all the equipment, how it worked, how it would assist, and in what missions how to deploy it effectively. Out of all the armor accessories she found, this one was the best in her opinion. She could control the powerful recoil of the gun perfectly; intensifying the effectiveness of three-round burst option.

Chief watched her take out the three Elites so fast they never even got a bead on her. Then she thrusted into the middle of the Grunts formation, dropping the battle rifle which automatically retracted under her shoulder and onto her back. She dropped low and grabbed two of the dropped plasma rifles, twirling and firing just like before. Looking through the blue flames of the dieing Grunts Sarah called to the Master Chief, "feeling tired old man?"

 _ **She wants to play eh,**_ Cortana's voice rang out in the Chief's mind. _Cortana,_ Chief couldn't help but think she and Sarah would get along just from sassiness. "Figured I'd let you have your fun," he said dropping down and standing by ready to fire into the horrid about to burst through the door.

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time," Sarah laughed as the door burst opened and plasma fire raced across the hanger. John stuck with a tired a true method he had come up with back on Alpha Halo; fully charged plasma bolt and three rounds from the plasma rifle. With lethal precision Chief was knocking Elites down left and right, breaking into a second hanger.

"This one is more over loaded with Covenant, great," Sarah growled, though a slight happy edge was detected in her voice by John, as she began targeting the mounted turrets above.

 _ **I know what the ladies like**_ , Avery's voice flooded John's head as he tore into the hangar with her, firing on the ground troops keeping with his one two punch method. He knew he could trust Sarah to deal with the turrets, so he charged forward not even blinking at them as they turned to target him.

"If I didn't know any better Chief," Sarah began, her voice sounding both amused and embarrassed as she blew away the mounted turrets with burning hot plasma. "I'd say this is your idea of a date, and that was you flirting," she finished joining him in clearing the ground troops.

"I said that last comment out loud didn't I," Chief asked a bit embarrassed ducking under an Elite's sword. He dropped both of his weapons and activated his plasma daggers. Shoving the Elite's arm to the side with his left one blocking a second strike from the sword, the Chief speared his arm in, the host blade of plasma melting its face. "I apologize Commander," Chief spoke pulling free his battle rifle and firing on the Gunts and Palmer was taking on the last of the Elites with her plasma rifles, "but the conversation reminded me of one I heard between Cortana and Sergeant Johnson."

"What prompted that conversation," Palmer asked killing the last Elite. She dropped her spent rifles and summoned the slung battle rifle free again, staging behind and to the left of the Chief as he weighted by a maintenance door.

The door opened and Chief began to open fire on the Elite while Sarah took out the Grunts, "the Sergeant was airlifting us a surprise Scorpion." He rushed forward and barreled into an unsuspecting camouflaged Elite, "Cortana mentioned how I never got her anything," he voice waiver ever so slightly at the mention of her name. "And she expressed her love for high explosives, before the Sergeant responded with that statement," the Chief finished the explanation as they reach the second over run habitat.

"You had an interesting group with you during Delta Halo," the Commander responded having already read the files about both Captain Keys and the regular Marine Sergeant-Major Avery J Johnson. _It's amazing to think that a regular unaugmented Marine was able to do things even Helljumpers would take pause before even considering. Hell half the time his record showed him dropping with Helljumpers,_ she thought Firing into the stationary gunner's methane tank, killing him and destroying the gun.

The Elite on the platform with the now dead Grunt dove to the side, and right into the Master Chief's line of fire. A controlled burst from the assault rifle at almost point blank range turned the Elite's head into a splatter of blood as the two took cover from the mounted guns on top raining plasma on the wall right by them.

"Any ideas," Palmer asked, almost teasingly.

"A few," John said lining a few things up in his head, "just get ready and cover the right side airlock when you see it start to open."

Sarah nodded and John switched out for his SMGs. Moving like lightning, John jumped from their cover and onto the platform with the first mounted turret. Without giving the turrets time to re-adjust, John lept to the next platform, targeting and Elite before performing the same move Sarah had earlier.

John weighed in armor around 700 pounds total, his thrusters along with the other members of Blue Team that were currently on assignment in a different company, were twice as powerful. When he used the boost and flew into the Elite full force from the top down. Instantly turning it into blue paste on the ground as he stunned the Grunts in the area, unloading on them as he shot back into cover with his purple thrusters on the other side of the habitat.

Sarah wasn't sitting around gawking this time, she saw her moment and took it the second the turrets started to track the Master Chief. With a quick set of two three-round burst shots, she brought down both turret gunners.

Each covered the side path from their respective positions and got ready for more enemies. Splitting and crossing the room both took up points to cover the left and right entrances. Chief tucked himself away near an open container box and began to set up targets for his Hydra missiles. Acting quickly the Chief shot four missiles, two taking the center of the formation while another two took the edges of it. The attacking Covenant weren't prepared for the missiles and were quickly dispatched. Chief turned to see if Palmer needed any help, _well I'll be damned._

When John had turned around he was expecting to see the Commander in cover blasting away at the enemy. What he was not expecting to see was her throw a plasma grenade, then shoot it, detonating it over the attacking squad. The Grunts all died from the explosion, while the Elite leading them was hit full force with burning plasma that instantly overloaded his shields. Palmer didn't wait for more than a second; the Elite fell at the sound of another gunshot.

"Nice trick," Chief commented heavily impressed with her marksmanship. _She could probably give Linda a run for her money,_ Chief said to himself, _let's see if she can finish out strong._ "Alright Spartan," John barked out to her, "on me. We've got another 15 minutes to reach the bomb." With that said the two began making their way through the maze of hallways that was Ciro Station.

It didn't take long for the two of the them to run across the same AI as before issuing orders to a group of mixed personal. _That Sergeant-Major sure is badass, that has got to be Johnson,_ she thought listening to the man bolster and laugh as his forces fought tooth and nail to reach their ship. _Guess we got escort duty,_ she laughed a bit as they help the men and women of the UNSC _In Amber Clad_. Thankfully the escort was short and the two parted ways with the group to move outside the station.

"We have 10 minutes remaining," John said as the two began ducking and dodging Elite plasma fire outside the station. John was blazing through, dodging shots by millimeters, and returning fire with his ever trusty assault rifle. Sarah was blazing away three round bursts taking down the shields for Chief's ungodly accuracy to finish off. To the on lookers in the viewing room, they almost seemed to be dancing the way one would fall back and the other push up.

After what seemed like an eternity the two were over the MAC cannon platform's elevator, "how in gods name did you do that by yourself?"

"With really good aim," Chief said attempting a joke for the first time in her company. _What is it about you that puts me at ease?_

"No kidding," she said swapping mags in the battle rifle before re-shouldering it as the elevator slowed. John however surprised her, he simply put his assault rifle on the back mag clip, "Master Chief?"

"10-4 Spartan," was all he said. He had figured what her question was going to be, but felt answering it was pointless. _I need to see how fast I can close the gap and fight a few Majors and Zealots._

The second the door opened John was moving, sprinting with all his thrusters active. moving as fast as a speeding car. Targeting the first surprised Zealot, Chief angled his body before activating the boost feature. The armored warrior slammed his shoulder into the Elite, before batting him away like garbage. The Elite had already died from the impact, chest crushed by brute force from the blow, was used to knock two Majors into Sarah's firing lane.

Acting quickly Sarah pumped burst shot after burst shot into their heads until they fell just as her magazine went dry. She quickly re-loaded before sighting in on the Master Chief looking for another shot, and almost dropped her rifle, _what in the actual fuck?_

John was, to be plainly stated, massacring the Elites guarding the bomb. The group had originally consisted of 10 Majors and 15 Zealots, _with the Chief's opening strike and my kills just now that still leaves 12 high ranking Elites. How in the hell did he do it alone the first time? What is it that can allow him to do these feets? And this,_ she thought mind racing back to the fight.

Ducking, side stepping, jumping, but never falling back. The Master Chief was a whirlwind of blue plasma as his wrist mounted daggers slashed and burnt into his enemies. After the AI's shock wore off the Elites ignited their plasma swords before roaring and charging in. One to his right tried for a vicious downward swing, putting all his might into killing the demon. John side stepped his swing, spinning on his heel and landing a horizontal slash through the Elite's back; severing its spinal cord.

The twirl wasn't for effect, as Sarah watched him block the second attacker with his left arm; allowing it to compress and absorb the impact. John had figured out the new armors could operate the thrusters at different points in the body, it's what allowed the Spartan-IVs the simulated strength of the IIs. Pushing his thrusters in just that arm he forced the Elite back with brute strength, pushing it back and off balance. Using his thrusters again Chief lunged at it getting just enough high and sideways force to land a decapitating blow with a right hook.

John kept his momentum and charged at one of the Elites, activating his thrusters and flying forwards with his blades crossed. The Elite squared its feet preparing for the impact with what qualified as a smirk. When the two clashed John's daggers were locked equally with the plasma sword; until he activated his boost. The force of the boost pressed the blades further back and the Elite was killed by his own sword.

John jumped to the left dodging a horizontal strike, and deflecting a downward diagonal strike from another. Moving quickly he grabbed the outstretched arm of the one who's blow he deflected, and pulled it into a thruster augmented knee. The Elite was winded, knocked out, and left for dead with its organs essentially paste.

Sarah finally pulled herself out of her stupor and began firing on the open Elites. Hours of practice with the sling-ed weapon paying off in spades as she blew away confused Majors. With Sarah finally giving aid the two finished clearing the room and then Chief deactivated the bomb.

"How much time," she asked Chief as the took a moment.

"You don't want to know," Chief said in a somewhat melancholy tone.

Sarah smiled, _he ain't so bad, a bit quiet and strange._ "So I heard a rumor that no one can confirm. Think you can finish playing the helmet cam footage here," she asked gesturing around to their area. _If I am right, I win….I think the pots up to 100,000 credits now?_

John pulled up the Artemis and punched in a few commands before nodding, "yes Commander. Only as view though ma'am."

"Do ya mind putting it on, I want to put something to rest," she asked politely but vaguely. _Finally! We all find out if the story is true,_ she inwardly screamed with glee.

"Ma'am," he answered confusedly but hit play regardless.

"No way," she spoke out in awe. She couldn't help it, as their was a shift in perspective and she saw the same number of high ranking Elites, just dead in different ways. _Once more he stands alone and not a fucking soul around. How does he do it?_ She thought before the scene played before her.

Sir, Permission to leave the station, the AI-Master Chief said into his ear piece.

What for son, came the response on the other end.

To give the Covenant back their bomb, the Chief spoke with steel and conviction.

The Master Chief's response confirmed everything for Sarah in that one statement. _There's no fucking way. I'm gonna see it, it's going to be confirmed by me and about a hundred Spartans-IVs, but I don't know if I can still believe it._

She watched as the AI grabbed the bomb and pulled it into the elevator. And that's when she heard Cortana speak up, you know this is crazy right?

Then stay behind, the Chief said. His tone hadn't changed, but something about the way he said it, it almost came off as a joke.

Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy, Cortana spoke out in jest of the situation and what was transpiring.

 _This is insane,_ Palmer thought as she watched the Chief pull the bomb into the airlock. He moved to the emergency open lever and gripped it tight.

What if you miss, Cortana inquired as Chief tensed.

I won't, he spoke. His calm attitude spoke volumes over the actions need to be performed. Pulling the lever the AI caught the bomb at just the right point, knocking it into the path of a Covenant super-carrier.

 _He's going to do it,_ she thought in amazement as the man flew a _bomb_ through one of the largest space battles she had ever seen. She saw three longsword bombers drop their payloads on the cruiser and watched as he guided the bomb into the belly of the reactor core.

He quickly righted himself on the bomb before resetting it and kicking off activating his thrusters. _The thrusters were glitchy as hell on the mark-VIs, I'm surprised he can even use them-_ , her thought cut off as she watched them glitch out and the Chief enter armor lock down mode as he entered an exhaust vent shaft. The bomb exploded as he entered, the force tearing apart the core and causing total detonation. _The bastard actually did it, in-fucking-credible,_ she thought as he used the force traveling down the shaft to push him out and onto the _In Amber Clad,_ Cortana unlocking his armor so he could join the rest of the ship in re-entry.

The feed cut and the door to the ready room opened and the two entered wordlessly.

* * *

"Whelp," Captain Lasky said breaking the silence, "no matter how impressive my capital ship kill record is, and it is impressive indeed, it will look like shit compared to that. Sure take down a capital ship with a MAC cannon, I'm just going to fly a _bomb_ into one, and fly out like it's just another monday."

The gather IVs couldn't help but nodded silently, even Alpha-Nine who has recently rejoined after grabbing chow and putting on working uniforms, were stunned silent. _They want one of us to take over for this guy,_ Buck thought with amazement. _And where the fuck did he get all this luck? That took way too many things lining up just right to be any kind of plan. That was a wing it all the way to hell, but somehow, some way, win._

Others had similar thoughts running through their minds, until Mickey spoke up, "do you think surviving his training is what is going to give us his luck? Because if we are just gonna be running his old missions, I fear for my sanity."

All the gathered Spartans paled at the thought of the training the Master Chief was going to inflict upon them; to the point they would willingly try what he just did as a sound strategy. You could hear a pin drop with the quiet; before Lasky started laughing uncontrollably again, "I am so glad I am not a Spartan," the Captain spoke out between laughs.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence sir," Romeo shot back sarcastically before he was swatted by Buck.

"That's the Captain," Buck said clearly irritated with Romeo's continued lack of respect. Romeo had a past with being insubordinate on many occasions. But he was one of the best snipers and keeping him enlisted and in the Spartan program kept him from other things.

"It's alright Sergeant Buck," Lasky said calming down and waving the NCO down. "I apologize if I was out of turn Lance Corporal Agu," Lasky spoke his tone calm and even, "you all are worried and scared of the training he has coming for you. Don't deny it, I would be. But remember this is what trainings for. And that is where we have failed your class of Spartans."

Whichever Spartan's attention he didn't have, he had now. "We gave you augmentations, we gave you Mjolnir power armor, but we didn't give you the same training they had. We figured more seasoned vets would yield just as good result. But they," Lasky said gesturing to the screen showing Sarah and John moving through a network of moving platforms killing squads of Covenant on their hunt for the Prophet of Regret.

"They stand above because they have the training, the experience, the hardships to push past their boundaries. Your Commander is matching the Master Chief shot for shot, move for move. Sure," he began his tone lighting slightly, "the Master Chief is racking up a higher kill count, but with that new armor he's got, kinda cheating." He finally got a laugh out of the gather Spartans and Romeo nodded a bit, thanking the Captain for the apology and the true vote of confidence.

 _You are a credit to you Spartan class Commander Palmer,_ Laksy thought watching as the two took down the Prophet of Regret.

 **Line Break**

"So that's one Prophet Hierarch down," Palmer said between breaths, finally starting to feel exhaustion set in.

"Ready for the Raid on _High Charity_ ," Chief asked punching in a few commands, dropping their armor specs.

"Give a girl a minute," Palmer asked finally standing and changing mags for fresh ones.

John nodded and waited for her signal to start the countdown.

"So give a gal some prep," she said replacing the spent mag in her battle rifle.

"Covenant Holy City of _High Charity_ ," John began jogging his own memory with the name, "home to the entire Covenant fleet currently under orders and not on leave on home worlds or colonies. This will not be easy, especially with the armor limited to the capabilities of the mark-VI. There will be no thrusters, no plasma daggers," and the Chief walked forward a bit, closing the distance. He quickly detached her sling, catching the battle rifle before putting it up, along with his extra Hydra missile belt.

"No extra armor abilities," he spoke out, his voice as clam as ever as he completely disarmed both of them. Then he pulled two plasma pistols out and handed one to her, "and no UNSC weapons."

"What in the actual fuck Chief," Sarah growled out as she grabbed his armor with her free hand and shook him, "first of all, why the fuck didn't you tell me about that before I reloaded my weapons and gear, secondly what the fuck? You stormed _High Charity_ with a plasma pistol?"

"I apologize, I just remembered with the Artemis was re-setting the armor specs," John began confused by the closeness and anger of the Commander, "and as for your other question, no"

"No you didn't storm _High Charity_ with a plasma pistol," she asked, her tone clearly asking for more of an explanation. _I'm gonna kill him if he thinks this is some kind of joke,_ she screamed mentally.

"No, I was teleported there by the Gravemind literally right after this last mission. I had no weapons when I arrived, I took the plasma pistol from a grunt filming the Prophet of Truth, took a shot at him, but he shields held. He disappeared in a quick escape grave lift and left me in the council chambers with a whole _clan_ of Brute Majors," John explained as quickly and politely as possible.

Sarah let go of his armor and stood shell shocked, "wh-what the fuck."

"Commander," John said placing his hand on her shoulder, "I made it through this, so can you."

"How?"

The question was asked so simply John was amazed. _How,_ he thought, _how do I keep doing the impossible. The question that seems to be on everyone's minds._ His thoughts drifted to Chief Mendez, and his words before they entered the augmentation process, _**to win you have to forget everything about pain and fear. You have to forget that there is an impossible, that every problem has a solution. You are now Spartans, the best the UNSC has to offer in defense of Earth and her Colonies. Leave fear behind and embrace the Spartan creed of old, "Either return with your shield, or on it."**_

The Chief hadn't realized he said anything until he saw her tense, "Commander Palmer?"

 _Forget pain and fear? Forget that there is an impossible? Does he actually believe that? Is the best soldier is the UNSC seriously guided by blind luck?_ Then her mind took her a place she hated to go.

She wasn't sure why but she was back on _Erebus VII_ , in a Brute encampment. She was bound, surrounded by the dead, dismembered bodies of her ODST squad mates. _No, not this, anything but this,_ she thought remembering the horrible place. They would torture them for any information they could get, and when the ODSTs wouldn't break, they would eat them alive in front of the others.

 _ **Forget pain and fear**_ **,** she watched as she cut herself free after taking the knife from her dead squad mate, _sorry Peter,_ she thought as she remembered feeling guilty robbing his corps. She moved quietly, clutching the Helljumper toothpick like a lifeline. Sh waited behind the door for the next one to enter, _I thought that was the perfect plan. Kill it from behind and go for home._

It didn't take long for one to come hulking through the door of the bombed out building they were in. "Little human," it growled out, "you ready to play? Answer wrong and I get to eat you. I've never had female, I wonder if you are more _tender_ ," it finished chuckling at its joke.

The Brute was a Chieftain wielding and Brute shot, and he came in scanning the room with it. _**You have to forget that there is an impossible, that every problem has a solution**_. That's when Sarah realized what the Master Chief meant. She should have died here, but this is where she steeled her resolve and promised she wouldn't die there. Where she struck without fear of dieing, because that was the least of her worries. She killed the Brute with a surprise slash to the neck, as he fell with a severed spinal cord thanks to the titanium blade. She quickly picked up its Brute shot and ran out the door.

She targeted the first of the remaining four and fired, her malnourished arms weren't ready for the recoil and when the weapon bucked, broke both her arms. She remember how much pain she was in as she kept firing moving to the other two in the room. When the dust settled she stood tall over the dead Brutes. Dropping the weapon she began running, running as fast as her legs could carry her.

She was drawn out of the memory by Chief shaking her, "Commander, you sure you don't need more rest?"

"No," she said her voice finding itself. _That's the feeling you have everyday,_ she thought steeling her resolve and finding that will within. She moved to the doorway, plasma pistol at the ready, "start the clock Chief,"

John nodded and started the clock on the Artemis. and joined her at the ready. "Remember, pick up anything dropped, it will have more ammo than you," John said as the clock reach 0.

The two charged through the door and into the council chambers of the Covenant.

* * *

The gathered Spartans had all left at some point to grab show, as the simulation run was pushing on three hours by itself, and every gathered soldier had one thought on their minds. _How in the world did he do this alone?_

The Chief and Palmer were making incredible time according to the Chief through the open comm-link, but still, the daunting task of fighting through an entire city filled with Covenant laid before them.

"They just hit the halfway point," Buck asked astounded as he heard the Chief mention they were halfway complete when they reached the dieing Prophet of Mercy.

"We are at the halfway point Commander," they heard ring out from the armored figure on screen. "But this is where things get interesting," he spoke again as he began firing on Flood that flew in on a damaged Pelican.

"You call this _interesting,_ " Palmer growled out as she joined him, her liberated fuel rod cannon blowing away all the different Flood forms as the two raced back the way they came.

"No," John said simply before pointing with his left hand, continuing to fire the carbine with his right, "I call that interesting."

The others watched Sarah's head follow his finger to see the _In Amber Clad_ smash into _High Charity_. Followed by scores of Flood breaking free, either in damaged Pelican dropships or free falling from exits and vents.

 _Whatever Sarah plans to do to me, I deserve,_ Lasky thought watching the four way battle the two Spartans had entered. The Elites and few fractioning Grunts and Hunters vs. the Brutes, Jackals, and Hunters vs. the Flood vs. them. _Their battlefield awareness is unprecedented,_ his thoughts continued as he watched them send forth a continuous stream of fire.

"It's pretty amazing to watch," Mickey spoke up watching as the Commander used her fuel rod cannon as a club, batting away an infect human form. Its loose grip on the shotgun completely failing at the impact allowed Sarah to liberate the weapon and unloaded it into a group of spore forms, completely obliterating them. Turning sharply when she caught the red dot in her motion tracker, she unloaded the last shell point blank range into a Brute's chest.

* * *

The 8-gauge hippo round fired out 15 9.5mm lead pellets that tore through the giant ape like alien's chest. What was 15 holes in the front, was one massive missing back, as blood and gore showered down onto the Grunts following the Brute in.

Wasting no time, Sarah threw the now empty shotgun to the side and grabbed the Brute shot in one motion, before bringing it up to bear and firing its entire belt into a group of rushing Elites. As the explosions took out their shields and damaged their armors, Chief unloaded into them with another pilfered carbine. Green and purple plasma raced forth from the muzzle, burning into their bodies, _I can't believe how much more accurate I am with the smartlink over the old hud reticle._

John had noticed it during the _Library_ run, he was using more ammo than the first two runs. John was already devastatingly accurate like the other Spartan-IIs, but the smartlink gave every weapon a better sight, tracked better, and overall was a much better set up. That didn't diminish his skills with the older aiming setup, just made it to where they weren't as many headshots as before.

As John and Sarah fought they moved. They kept with John taking point, Sarah literally a step behind, and John just pushed forward. It didn't matter what was around the corner, or through a blast door, or on a lower platform, the Chief just plowed into it without a second thought. _There's no hesitation in his steps, in his shots. He doesn't wait around looking for the perfect one, I doubt he would kill half as many if he did. He merely runs and guns anything in his path down. It truly is amazing,_ she thought keeping pace with him, swapping out her now empty Brute shot for a dead Brute's red plasma rifle.

The two fought their way down the twisting corridors, through the open habitats that were needed to produce breathable air for a population of this size, through the militaristic city streets. The two never once paused for a breather, never once paused to rest their muscles, never once let go of the trigger except to swap weapons.

The two were a swarm of plasma and bullets as they shot at everything in their path, "so what's the exit strategy," Sarah asked taking a beam rifle and lining up three Grunts. When the shot the beam traveled forth and tore through the first two instantly killing them, and mortally wounding the third, leaving it to bleed out. She began to line up another shot when Chief answered.

"Forward, at 11 oclock," he said dropping the now empty carbine and picking up two plasma rifles. He began firing on a group of flood trying to flank them from his immediate right. At close range the shots of plasma did more than just shoot into them, it tore into them. Even grazing shots were burning into the putrid flesh, slowing them down just long enough for John to get in a good shot on a vital.

Sarah turned to glance at where 11 would be on a clock, and all she saw was the ship from the Second Attack of Earth, _that's the one that activated that weird artifact that opened a portal in what was left of New Mombasa._ "That's our ride? That thing has to be crawling with Covenant," Sarah shouted blowing away a group of Jackals with the red plasma rifle.

"It is," John confirmed as he liberated a magnum pistol from a now dead infect Flood form. Unloading with his remaining plasma rifle, John took the shields down on a group of Elites before killing them all with magnum rounds to the face, "but the simulation will end when we reach the Dreadnought."

Sarah was surprised to hear that, "why not carry on with the rest of it," she shot back sarcastically. "Can't think I can handle it," she added after a small pause while exchanging weapons, she was now carrying another Brute shot.

"No ma'am," John said as he wound up with a Brute shot as well, "I was in a maintenance hallway for the ride through slip space. They didn't even know I had boarded," he continued as the rounds from the Brute shot flew out and bounced in perfect arcs over incoming Elites. The high explosion over their heads destroyed their shields, allowing Palmer to take them out in a shower of purple blood and body parts. "I wasn't discovered until I blasted my way out of an external vent and fell to Earth from sub-orbit," he finished grabbing an energy sword from on the the random arms now laying in their path.

Sarah started to laugh as she grabbed an energy sword as well, her Brute shot empty, "Chief, you sure are something else."

The two began a dance of death and the moved in and out of enemies slashing and stabbing; the plasma blades tearing through infected flesh causing the Flood to explode. Or when the random alien popped up would cut and burn into them, leaving a permanent reminder of what happens when you face a Spartan, death is the only outcome.

 _This is really interesting,_ John thought as he continued to cut his way through the hordes of enemies encircling them as they ran. _I haven't worked this well with another soldier in quite awhile. There is very little need for communication to coordinate our fire and attacks, yet we seem to be backing the other up with no trouble or problems. She has definitely earned her place as the Commander of the Spartan-IVs,_ Chief thought internally with praise to the soldier fighting by his side as the cleared the final hard light bridge and began sprinting to the energy relay.

Once they reached the relay, both hopped in and were immediately slingshotted into the ready room, the simulation ending. "That was...that was intense," Palmer said finally able to rest on the ground of the ready room. She had righted herself from the slingshot effect as soon as the door closed and was sitting down leaning back on her elbows breathing deeply, "you are gonna make all the fireteams run that simulation?"

John who was already standing nodded and clarified a few more things for her, "with your permission ma'am. I planned to speak more in depth with you about it tomorrow during our meeting to set up a good training regimen for the fireteams."

"Permission granted," she ordered almost immediately after he was finished talking. _Only one fireteam could possible pull this mission off alone,_ the Commander thought as she stood and prepared to exit along with the Chief who was running cleanup program via the Artemis. _And if he can make all of them run this competently, the Spartan branch will have nothing to fear ever again,_ she rounded off her thoughts thinking about the last mission.

As the doors opened both stepped out to a variety of applause and yelling, "guess they are a little excited. Then again we did put on a pretty good show," Palmer said with a smirk, knocking Chief's shoulder with hers.

"Doubt they will be cheering this hard the day after tomorrow," Chief said, trying for another joke. _What is it about you,_ John thought as the gather Spartans began to cheer less loud as their impending doom, I am mean training, got a date. Sarah on the other hand just chuckled while release the safety on her helmet and pulling it free. John could tell he put her through the paces, her brown hair was matted down on her face, trails of sweat pouring down, but Chief caught a glimpse of her eyes just before she closed them to take a steadying breath.

He eyes were still alight with the same determination as before, _seems she finally get is,_ he thought. He was actually very impressed that she managed to understand what he was trying to convey before the final simulation. That sometimes you have to force you will upon the situation, that you sometimes have to throw caution to the wind as you do the impossible because there is no other option. _When you ride the razor's edge between life and death, you find out that sometimes you can change everything with a bit of luck._

"Alright everyone," Lasky said speaking up drawing everyone's attention. "Back to work, I know I gave you guys the day off my training, but everyone still has duties to perform and working way is almost over," the ship's captain spoke, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Commander, Chief," he started back up as the other Spartans filed out, "get out of that armor and fed. You guys are done for the day."

Both Spartan's snapped to attention and confirmed the order before John parted from her side grabbing his datapad from the terminal. Disconnecting it he began the trek to the armory to have his armor removed, and was joined shortly by the Commander, who stayed behind to speak with Lasky about something for a moment.

"So," she began breaking the silence, "I see how you do it now. How you go through everything as though it was just another day."

John turned his head to face her, and even though his orange-gold lens covered his face she could just see the raised eyebrow inquiring her to go ruther.

"You take those words to heart," she started to explain further, "the ones you said before the _High Charity_ simulation. About forgetting pain and fear. About finding a solution to an impossible situation. There was one mission before this, one time I felt like that…" she trailed off as her mind went to that dark place on _Erebus VII._

"When your squad was attacked and captured by Brutes, and you managed to escape after a week worth of torture and watching them eat you squadmates," John spoke, his tone somber, hoping that would help her in someway.

"Yeah," she confirmed quietly. "I, I thought I was gonna die there. I don't know why the Brutes left me for last but they did. I was going crazy and eventually promised myself something, that I wouldn't die there, anywhere but there. I had to steal a toothpick," she said tapping the large combat knife strapped to the side of her armor still, "cut myself free and made my break for it."

"After killing a Chieftain, stealing his Brute shot, and then killing the other three guarding you. The recoil broke both of your arms, and then you proceeded to run for two miles before you were found by a passing patrol," John finished for her when it was obvious that she wasn't going to continue.

She was surprised he knew that much about and before she asked he answered, "I read your file on the flight back to _Infinity_ from High Command."

 _Guess the surprise on my face was noticeable,_ she thought in response to her unasked but answered question, "And what did you think? I'm sure my file held more than just that."

John paused for a moment in speaking trying to figure out the correct words, "I find you to be interesting," he finally replied.

"You seem to use that word frequently Chief," Palmer quipped as they entered the armory and she began to slow down as her armor gyro was near the front.

"I use it when I am not sure of how to explain something," John remarked slowing down to match her pace.

"So you can't explain me," she questioned with a bit a pride in her voice.

"Not what I meant," John said flustered. Sighing he continued, "I can explain your missions, well the ones I can remember, I can explain your value as a soldier and a Spartan, I can explain why you have made certain calls, and I can explain why you are the Commander of the Spartan-IVs. What I can't explain is you. I can't explain why it seemed like you were apprehensive when I first stepped out after the simulation runs with Alpha-Nine. I can't explain how you were constantly able to know where I'd be, and coordinate fire with me without speaking. I can't explain why I feel like making chit chat with you when before I could have made this walk without so much as a statement."

The revelation caught Sarah off guard clearly not expecting that answer. _And probably not even emit to half of that,_ she finished off in her head for him. The arrive at her gyro in silence as the technicians on shift began to move forward and take up the stripping tools. "Chief," she called out to him as he began moving in search of his gyro, "sometimes there are things in this world that just can't be explained. As for me," she smiled at him, "I'm not that hard to figure out. 0500 tomorrow Spartan."

He nodded before continuing on, using the Artemis to find his gyro. After walking for another minute John found his near the back. It was out of the way and far enough back he wouldn't have to deal with too many people everyday for which he was happy about. Upon further inspection he noticed no engineers by his gyro or around at all for that matter. As he got closer he also noticed that most of the tools to put the armor on or remove it were missing, along with an added console and small table next to it. Reaching the station John placed his datapad down on the table before looking around for any engineers or armor techs.

"Ah," John heard a synthesize voice coming from above. Looking up he noticed a Huragok floating down to him wearing a strange device with what looked like a speaker wrapped around his neck. "Am I correct in assuming you are Sierra-117," the speaker rang out and John put two and two together.

 _At least I don't have to use the sign language,_ he thought before responding, "correct, and your name is?"

"Sir Floats a lot," the alien responded. While the speaker was a bit processed, John could still hear the tones of humor in its response. The Huragok continue speaking regardless, "a few of the Spartans-iV have a penchant for much older films by a group called Monty Python. My name is derived from the fact that I float a lot, and I've been told my voice box gives me a bit of an old-British accent, and that I talk like a butler."

John nodded, offering up an, "I see," before taking his place in front of the gyro.

"Oh no Master Chief, you can step in this one. It was custom made by **her** especially for you," Float answered pointing a tentacle to the center of the machine. John moved back and stood in the middle of the gyro, suddenly the platform he was on raised slightly and more arms sprang out from around him.

Moving quickly the Master Chief placed his arms in the side stabilizers before the machine started to remove his armor. It took less than a minute and his armor was off and store neatly in a retaining locker directly behind the machine. "I take it you will be the one responsible for my mainitiance," the Spartan asked the alien as he stood in just his bio-suit.

"And upgrade," Float answered before tapping a few console buttons and a holo screen appeared. "I asked the madam to refrain from informing you about one new feature since I was the one to create it," the creature continued with more pride in its voice than John thought should be there.

"Your armor," Float said pointing to the highlighted spots, "houses thousands and thousands of micro-sized Huragok that can run repairs, soft patches for any new technology they run across, and assist the Artemis. I can interface with them and fully anything useful from the soft patches."

 _Incredible,_ John thought before an idea came to him, "if I get my hands on an Elite's active camouflage would you be able to integrate permanently?"

The squid like creature nodded it's head before the speaker conveyed its thoughts, "of course. The only reason you don't currently have it is because the human species lack the materials to make them. One of the key components is only found deep in covenant territory, and the human active camouflage units for ships can't be downsized due to power requirements."

John nodded before making ready to leave by grabbing his datapad he set down on the small table by the console. "Master Chief," Float said stopping the giant, "while you are more than welcome to come by everyday to check on your armor if you don't trust me. But I was instructed by Lord Admiral Hood to inform you that armor is not standard uniform during peace times. The only time you can request to wear the armor, aside from combat operations, and on duty days you have training scheduled for."

"Thank you Sir Floats a Lot," John said, appreciative about the reminder. The Chief knew all the UNSC regulations backwards and forwards, however there were a lot of them and occasionally he needed to be reminded.

The Huragok's speaker crackled with laughter, "just Float is fine Sierra-117."

"Affirmative," the Spartan confirmed the request, continuing his exit path.

* * *

"Well this is the worst possible situation," Halsey said rubbing her temples in annoyance. She had two of the many holo-screens in her office prison at their maximum magnification, one had a picture of a DNA double helix with code running down the side, while the other was wrapping up a viewing of John's simulation runs.

"Roland," Halsey barked out into the darkened room.

Suddenly the holo-tank lite up as the bomber like AI appeared, "Doctor," Roland greeted firmly but politely.

"I need to speak with Terrance and...Osman," Halsey spoke skipping any pleasantries.

The AI nodded before setting up her communications array for the conversation. _What am I, a 21st century operator,_ the AI thought bitterly at being called for something so petty, but he knew why he was. Halsey was blacklisted, and her communications were limited by Roland under Osman's order. He set up the link and then nodded as he flashed out, the two communications windows were showing the icons for ONI and High Command.

It didn't take long before the woman known as Serin Osman took the screen. She glared at the Doctor, who returned it full force, "good evening _Doctor_ , to what do I owe the _pleasure,"_ she sneered out.

"Wait for Terrence, _Serin-019_ ," Halsey shot back, condescension dripping from her words.

"Admiral Osman, _Doctor,_ " Serin growled out through clenched teeth at the head of the old Spartan-II program.

Halsey didn't respond and merely waited for Lord Hood to appear on the screen, and was graced by his presence after ten minutes of awkward waiting, "you took your sweet time Terrence."

"Ah you know how those Senators never want to stop talking," Lord Admiral Terrence Hood said with a chuckle before noticing Admiral Osman and the death glare she sported, "so what's going on for a meeting of the Unholy Three?"

"Don't know," Osman said gesturing to Halsey, "the good Doctor wouldn't tell me anything till you showed up."

"Catherine," Lord Hood spoke as he nodded his head for her to begin.

"We have a code pink," Halsey spoke plainly. That statement caused Osman to raise her brow, which almost hiked into her hairline when Hood started to burst out laughing, "I am glad you find this amusing Terrence. It gets worse."

"How could it get worse," Hood asked calming down and bringing his laugh to a low chuckle.

Halsey sighed before tapping a few commands on a console sending them both images, "when John was on _Requiem_ the Librarian altered him on a DNA level to make him immune to the composer. But it had a weird side effect," she started to highlight different groups of code and information. "All of his augmentations have been integrated into his DNA, on top of that, whatever hormones we repressed in creating them are now active. Very active, our little soldier has himself a crush."

Suddenly both Admirals were watching what Halsey would describe as flirting for a Spartan. Hood broke out in laughter while Osman face planted in her desk yelling, "fuck!"

"Suggestions," Osman asked picking her head up from the desk.

"For now we let it run its course," Halsey began, "and get support incase it goes south. Call Blue Team in, and get your newly acquired _Spartan_ Acquisitions Expert on board as well. We may need the extra firepower."

"Really," Osman asked, her tone taking a deadly edge, "you would suggest the hit on someone you have repeated showed motherly affection too? Pretty cold hearted."

"We have a 46 year old virgin, remade _twice_ for war, sexually repressed since he was fourteen," Halsey began to explain condescending with a bored glare at Osman, "spent the last thirty years either in war or cryo sleep. He is about to be flooded with memories in his down time, with a ticking chemical time bomb of hormones. We have no idea how he is going to process this, we have to take every available course of action we have."

"Very well," Osman relented at her point. _Plus I might be able to use him to keep tabs on John, maybe even get him on board._

"I'll run Blue Team's paperwork through and they will be on the _Infinity_ within the month," Hood agreed as he added a reminder to his datapad. "What do you think will happen Catherine," he asked looking at her. Osman gave the woman her full attention as well.

"This could go a few ways," she began sitting down in a chain for the first time that day. She rubbed the bridge of her nose as she started again, "the first and most obvious, he cracks and we put him down. Another everything settles, he's pissed at me like Serin-019 and Naomi-010. Then there is always the possibility it changes nothing and he moves on, but then what to do with these new emotions and feelings he's getting from nowhere. What happens when he learns about it and ends up in a relationship? If he winds up with any normal human, he would have to be careful to not kill her, even by a strong hug. Sure say restric his fraternisation to just Spartans, that doesn't change the fact that John is gonna be hornier than a seventeen year old teenage at spring break. And what happens if he winds up in a relationship with one of them? If they cheat on him? Break his heart? Die?"

"To many variables to take into consideration," Osman summed up to which the Doctor nodded.

"Are only option then is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Hood added while sighing and sinking in his chair. "What a cluster fuck," Hood muttered out of character.

"Maybe you shouldn't have signed an order for the kidnapping of 75 children to become super soldiers," Osman said a bitterly to the aging Admiral.

"I would adjust your tone 019," Admiral Hood shot back. "If you read all your files, _your_ predecessor signed the order as well. Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. Yes being the head of ONI makes you the spook of all spooks. But I have eyes everywhere, just like you."

"Sir," Osman spoke back quickly.

"And before you two go," Halsey said standing back up and stretching, "just remember, I do too."

The two nodded before signing off as Catherine made her way to her main work bench. She reached out picking up the picture of John she took earlier that day, "I sent you through hell once before. I'll stop you if you start to enter it again."

 **AN:**

 **So chapter two is done. Couple of things to answer before you review.**

 **Yes I am not keeping with Cannon. It bees what it bees.**

 **Yes Chief is being started on a crush level.**

 **Yes there will be drama and they won't be together right away**

 **No the options Halsey listed are not open for voting. I know what is going to happen as its part of the story.**

 **I hope I kept the flirting light like I was trying.**

 **Yes DNA level changes, cliche**

 **Yes I made everyone amazed at Chief. Please understand what he did, what we did in Halo...is impossible. Even for a super soldier. Yes to those will argue and say I don't know, your right. But I say its impossible and everyone would be amazed.**

 **No John doesn't have special powers**

 **Hope I got the hang of writing his new armor abilities in**

 **Hope everyone enjoyed it, next chapter out soon….no idea when though…..so maybe a year….i hope not…..fuck.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Unholy Three

**What it Means to be Human**

 **Chapter 3: The Unholy Three: Enter the Shady and Confusing World of Conspiracy**

" _I'll run Blue Team's paperwork through and they will be on the Infinity within the month," Hood agreed as he added a reminder to his datapad. "What do you think will happen Catherine," he asked looking at her. Osman gave the woman her full attention as well._

" _This could go a few ways," she began sitting down in a chain for the first time that day. She rubbed the bridge of her nose as she started again, "the first and most obvious, he cracks and we put him down. Another everything settles, he's pissed at me like Serin-019 and Naomi-010. Then there is always the possibility it changes nothing and he moves on, but then what to do with these new emotions and feelings he's getting from nowhere. What happens when he learns about it and ends up in a relationship? If he winds up with any normal human, he would have to be careful to not kill her, even by a strong hug. Sure say restric his fraternisation to just Spartans, that doesn't change the fact that John is gonna be hornier than a seventeen year old teenage at spring break. And what happens if he winds up in a relationship with one of them? If they cheat on him? Break his heart? Die?"_

" _To many variables to take into consideration," Osman summed up to which the Doctor nodded._

" _Are only option then is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Hood added while sighing and sinking in his chair. "What a cluster fuck," Hood muttered out of character._

" _Maybe you shouldn't have signed an order for the kidnapping of 75 children to become super soldiers," Osman said a bitterly to the aging Admiral._

" _I would adjust your tone 019," Admiral Hood shot back. "If you read all your files, your predecessor signed the order as well. Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. Yes being the head of ONI makes you the spook of all spooks. But I have eyes everywhere, just like you."_

" _Sir," Osman spoke back quickly._

" _And before you two go," Halsey said standing back up and stretching, "just remember, I do too."_

 _The two nodded before signing off as Catherine made her way to her main work bench. She reached out picking up the picture of John she took earlier that day, "I sent you through hell once before. I'll stop you if you start to enter it again."_

* * *

A buzzing noise rang out in the darkened room before a fist smashed down on a small electric alarm clock; the force of the blow shattering it. _Great_ , Commander Palmer thought as she rose from her bed, _I'm just glad_ Infinity _has a PX on board._ She hit the lights on by tapping a few buttons on her datapad, thankfully the UNSC had thought a bit about comfort when they built the _Infinity's_ officer quarters, and the the lights came on at a low setting as to not blind her. _Perks of commissioning I suppose,_ her thoughts continued as she dressed for the day.

 _Meets, meetings all day,_ she grumbled in her head and under her breath as she prepared her working whites for the day. _Stupid uniform, give me power armor any day,_ the working whites weren't bad per say, she just didn't prefer them. They were the standard officer coat that was an off white/grey color, armored ever so slightly. As a female officer she was given the option of a skirt, but Sarah being a Spartan usually chose the armored pants, she felt uncomfortable out of her armor ever since she got it.

 _I guess I just feel stronger, safer,_ she thought as she moved down the hallway to her office near the bow of s-dek. _And now I'm talking to myself, just great,_ she trudged into the beautiful officer's office they had for her, _why are the lights on?_ She didn't dwell on it, and made an immediate beeline for her coffee pot, she found that it already had coffee in it, _did I not pour it out yesterday,_ she thought. Then her eyes caught the steam coming off the top, and an unfamiliar smell, _I don't own that brand._

"Captain Lasky thought it would be amusing for us to share your office seeing as how you don't have another NCO working directly under your command, nor another officer," a voice startled her. Spinning around quickly and drawing the magnum from her side; Palmer almost dropped the offending weapon. Sitting there, lined up perfectly with her sights was the Master Chief, wearing the old fashioned khaki working uniform, sitting on a reinforced rolling chair, and at a slightly taller than normal desk. He was punching away at the desk's console interface with his datapad plugged in, and from what Palmer could tell he was reading files and taking notes.

"I am going to _kill_ Lasky," Palmer mutter before pouring the coffee into her mug, "didn't know you like coffee Chief."

"I don't," he responded without so much as a look in her direction. "The Captain ordered me to inform you that the coffee was a peace offering and not to march to his office and...gut him," the Chief finished awkwardly, clearly disturbed by the statement.

 _What's crawled up his ass this early,_ she asked internally caught off guard by how awkward he had said it. "Well at least he has his priorities straight," she mumbled while taking a sip and savoring the brown liquid, "mh, double brewed," she breathed out after the sip. "Well you're off my shit list Captain, for the moment anyway," she said.

 _Why would she declare that,_ John thought as we continued scanning through the Spartan-IVs' records, _the Captain isn't even here. Plus there is the insabourantion charges he could bring up on her for even saying that. Should I address the issue? Or,_ Chief cut himself off mid thought. His mind racing back to the two times they spoke when he emerged from the hard light simulation room. _It must be joking around between two colleagues. Johnson attempted to rile me up a few times,_ Chief finally guessed after comparing the actions of the Captain with Johnson and some of the things the two would say.

Chief finally broke from his screen to turn and acknowledge her presence, and he was rendered speechless for a moment. The Commander's brown hair was pulled into a practical but delicate parted bun, and Chief found that the uniform accredited her figure nicely. He took a moment to take in her sleepy appearance as she more or less plopped down into her reinforced chair. Her eye-lids were half closed as she kept the mug near her face, taking in the aroma in between sips. _I've seen plenty of female soldiers, but what is it about this one, that makes me look longer,_ the Chief thought as he finally broke out of his stare.

"Ma'am, I have finished reviewing the Spartan-IV records and ready for the briefing," John spoke, still giving her his attention, but not the intense stare from before. _Seems she doesn't like not being in armor either,_ he noticed as she kept fidgeting with her top, trying to pull it down and make it longer.

"How in the fuck did you read all of the Spartan-IV records in," Sarah glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 0505, "five minutes?"

"I had trouble sleeping," John said after a slight pause while he processed what to say, "so I swung by medical and picked up a stem. Been here since 0100 ma'am."

"Trouble sleeping," Sarah parroted back sitting up straighter going into full officer mode as she like to call it, "care to elaborate Sierra-117?"

"John," he began simply,"John-117."

Sarah was deeply surprised by John's admission of his name. She smirked a bit before nodding his thanks, "I appreciate the gesture and approval to use your name, John-117. But as your Commanding officer that was one of the few things spoiled to me when they sent me your record. Which by the way, pretty much redacted. And some of the dates don't make since, got anything for that?"

"I have no reasonable explanations for the dates not matching up. But as far as the redacted information, most of my missions were highly classified. Until the Halo campaign there were probably a total of less than forty people that even knew my call tag. I appreciate your desecration so far," he admitted plainly.

"So private only then?"

"If that is alright," John responded with, never one to order a superior around. Defy direct orders sure, but never try to overrule.

"Not a problem 117," she said with a nodded before back tracking, "so you're having issues sleeping? What kind?"

"I was having issues staying asleep," he finished quickly as memories started to run ramped at the thought of the nightmares he was having. He closed his eyes for a moment as he fell back into his training and began to put everything back in its place mentally.

"Stop," Sarah ordered and John's eyes snapped open. He looked at her confused, and a bit angry for the order to disrupt what he was taught, "sorry for breaking you out of compartmentalizing your thoughts, but that's the problem."

"How? We were trained to do just that to keep our edge, to keep our instincts sharp in battle," Chief explained still confused by her order.

"You're right, that is what we are taught, but only for battle," she answered, "we aren't in battle Chief. And we definitely aren't at open war anymore, so there is no need to compartmentalize thoughts. So stop doing that and tell your new Commanding officer what is wrong," she ordered after her explanation.

John sighed but followed the order none the less, "I was having trouble staying asleep due to memories. I-," another pause as he searched for the words, "-I am deeply confused by these memories as I have no experience with them. They feel so vivid and real, yet they are fading more and more, which I find strange as all Spartan-IIs have identity memories."

It took Palmer a moment to realize what he meant, _memories he has no experience with? Vivid and then fading...it almost sounds like-but,_ she cut herself off before slapping her forehead causing the Chief to stare at her awkwardly. "John," she began slowly testing the name as he nodded. She continued after the nod looking him directly in the eyes, "where were you posted for off combat duty when not running ground operations?"

"Cryo ma'am," was the response, once more his tone at the abnormal was even and calm.

"For the entire war," she asked her eyes going wide, and felt like they might pop out after watching him nod. _Thirty years without a dream,_ she thought, _guess it explains the body of a man in his early thirties instead of the body of a forty-six year old._ She hadn't missed how his hair was not starting to grey or fade like the other members of Blue Team she had worked with on occasion. "Well," she began again, "those weren't memories Chief. They were dreams."

"Dreams," the Spartan repeated his voice taking on a touch of melancholy.

He didn't say anything after that and Sarah assumed he was processing the few he had before working. "Chief," she began again, this time with rank. She was hoping to convey the seriousness of her request, "please refrain from taking stems and using the cryo-tank. You need to deal with whatever is to come. It will be difficult, especially because of what you have seen during the war. But the repercussions of not dealing with them will be worse."

"How so? And how does the war affect my dreams," the Chief asked curiously.

"Dreams are strange. No one can say for certain what causes us to dream and what about. But we do know that you might relive memories, some will be exactly like before. Others may be different, you may see a different outcome, may put different people in different places. You could be dreaming of laying in the grass in a park and the next second in armor doing an orbital-drop. You could dream about someone you find attractive. You could dream about someone you lost. You could dream of a puppy you saw on a poster or ad. You could dream of success or failure or both all at the same time. You could dream about literally anything Chief. And repressing that will cause issues," she explained sternly, _I am so glad we get an advanced psychology course in OCS._

John nodded before agreeing to the request to keep away from stems and cryo tanks. After receiving the confirmation Sarah let out a sigh of relief before pulling up her schedule, "now that that is out of the way. What's the plan for training," she asked.

"Tomorrow at 0400 all Spartans need to be dressed in armor in full battalion formation in the parade hall," John began as she started typing. "They will have a full combat readiness inspection before moving on to training brief," he sent her a copy of the brief he was planning on distributing. "First for full capabilities assessment I was going to run all the Spartan fireteams through the _Library_ and _High Charity_ simulations at full armor specs. Everyone will run the _Library_ first, and then the _High Charity_ to give them a break in between for rest. I want to evaluate how they operate at full capabilities. The missions will run until all four members of the fireteam are either locked up or the mission is complete."

Chief then moved to his next day and the rest of training, "the following day I want to see how the Spartans perform out of armor in various simulations, and I am fully open to ideas. Once I have a full assessment of the Spartan-IVs current skill level I will be able to set up a training schedule to improve on where they are lacking while keeping their other skills sharp."

"How do you want to schedule the simulation runs," Sarah questioned as she stopped typing about halfway through updating her schedule.

"Alpha-Nine will run first to set a benchmark," Chief said before looking through his notes on the other fireteams. "I would say Gypsy, Mystic, Crimson, Tango-Eight, Zulu-Six, Wolf, Shadow, Apex, Charlie-One, Jackknife, Rhino, Lancer, Sword, Switchback, Echo-Two, Avalanche, Tower, Echo-Five, Ivy, Fox, Kodiak, Beast, and Sydney.",

"Why that order," she asked as she began to list them in the order he provided for her.

"While each team is well rounded, they all specialize in one thing or another," Chief began before using the large wall display to show the groupings. "Gypsy, Mystic, Crimson, Tango-Eight, and Zulu-Six are all forward combat teams. While Wolf. Shadow, Apex, Charlie-One, and Jackknife are more long range and sniper support. Then you have Rhino, Lancer, Sword, Switchback, Echo-Two, and Avalanche running demolition and heavy weapons. Finally you have Tower, Echo-Five, Ivy, Fox, Kodiak, and Sydney as armor support. This keeps the different specialized teams in the same groupings allowing for inter-competition and better results."

"They will all try to out do the other to claim bragging rights," she realized. _If he ran them at odd intervals then there would be squabbling over how one team would be less suited for the task. By running those teams back to back there is no doubt where we will be lacking in training and allow for less squabbling with four top dogs. Who will incidentally try to out do each other for bragging rights. He sure knows how play people's competitive nature._ "Have to say Chief this is a hell of a training regiment just for assessment," she said, "but it will give us the best look at the gaps in our current skill set."

"That's what I was thinking," he said as he took down the screens and continued to work and figuring out the best way to train them after the assessment. "Will we be able to go planet side at all for vehicle training? Also do we have any training Pelicans, Longswords, or Broadswords? Also do we have access to any Prowlers or smaller ships both for combat and training," John asked going through a mental list of things he needed to know for this schedule rough draft he was working on.

Sarah paused before pulling up the Spartans full armory inventory list and checking through it while answering, "we can use either Luna's or Mar's vehicle training grounds for Warthogs, Scorpions, Hornets and the like. We also have some old Covenant ground vehicles for training. As far as access to smaller transport and combat ships that is a negative. Damn," she finished with a curse under her breath.

"Ma'am?"

"We have so much equipment for training with the new gear loadouts," she said rubbing the bridge of her nose, "yet every time I see someone on their "training" day, they would just be doing PT or using their favorite weapons to "show off their amazing skills". Ugh, no wonder everyone keeps picking the same gear over and over again. They have no idea how to use the new stuff, yet every day I have for training I'm trying to find equipment I haven't used. Fuck me."

"I see now why Lord Hood gave me this position," Chief agreed, "you are too busy with meetings, paperwork, and what not with keeping the division up and running to worry about their training."

"Pretty much," Sarah nodded closing out of the inventory list, "let's get through the next two days of assessments and then we will hammer out that schedule."

John nodded before opening a requisition form for two stealth Prowlers along with a few more things he thought the Spartans were missing. _Regular BDUs, rucksacks, combat knifes, field repair kits for Mjolnir,_ his list kept growing bigger and bigger as he worked silently.

Hours pass for the two as the processed paperwork, scheduling, and memos. Multiple times Sarah had caught Chief glancing in her direction of the course of the morning and every time he did, he looked like he was about to say something but didn't.. _Ok this is annoying_ , she thought after having caught him for the fifth time in the last hour. "If you have something to say Chief," she began haughtily, "say it."

"I've noticed you keep fidgeting with your uniform," John said politely as he continued to work, "it is a bit distracting."

Sighing she broke away from her work finally seeing it was about time to break for chow, "yeah. This thing is horribly uncomfortable, especially compared to the bio-suit from the armor. God I would prefer to remain in armor while on duty."

"I understand more than you know," John said opening a second requisitions form. _I'll have to bypass her and go straight to the Captain for this, just hope she doesn't get mad, should probably give her a temporary solution,_ he thought before continuing, "and while regulations state we can not wear armor on duty days, it does not say anything about the bio-suit."

Sarah almost smacked herself, "so while I've been putting up with this uncomfortably itchy uniform, you have been sitting there all nice and un-itchy in the bio-suit?"

"The khaki working uniform for Spartan-IIs was picked for comfort," Chief answered with a negative shake of his head, "I wear the bio-suit at all times under it so it cuts down on my combat readiness time. Plus it is armored, seals with the helmet in case of EVA exposure, and is essentially titanium body armor."

Sarah thought about the practically behind it, and almost called him out on not having his helmet, till she noticed for the first time on his desk rested his helmet. "I didn't even notice your helmet resting on the desk; geez, I was out of it this morning. But it is a sound argument all the way around," she said before adding one more reminder to her to-do list before standing.

"Well John," said drawing his attention again, "time to break for chow."

"Enjoy your lunch Commander, "John said turning back to the paperwork that lay before him, "I have quite a bit of work here in preparing for tomorrow."

"If you miss chow now, it won't come around until after duty day," Sarah shot back hoping to speak with him in a bit more informal setting.

"I've missed meals before," was all Chief said.

Sarah's eyebrow began to violently twitch as her fists balled up. _God fucking damnit! What the hell is with you? All I wanted to do was talk to my new literal "Chief" NCO. But no,_ she ranted internally dragging out the "O", _the Spartan-IIs are fucking robots that don't want to spend more than five minutes talking to someone outside of a mission. He spoke more in the simulation runs than all god damn morning!_ She stopped in her internal rant as she heard the Chief sigh, "I-I just said all that out loud didn't I?"

John nodded and turned to face her an awkward look on his face, something was strange about it, he almost looked embarrassed. "Ma'am, you are going to find working with my very frustrating if you are not direct. It was very difficult for Sergeant Johnson, to the point I believe he would insult me to the face and then give the direct information; both for the insult which usually went over my head, along with the information about the situation I was socially inadequate to respond in. So I am not offended by your outburst. Second of all I was laboring under the impression that you were merely reminding me of meal time and how to keep top physical form by eating enough. I apologise if I seemed dismissive and would enjoy to accompany you to chow."

"You are gonna drive me nuts aren't you," Sarah shot back exasperated after his response. _What the fuck am I supposed to follow that up with? I thought he was being an ass hole, but nope, just me._

"Most likely," John answered seriously while standing. Making his way to the door pausing before leavin, "coming Commander?"

"Yeah," she said joining him, the two leaving and making their way to the mess hall, "so Johnson use to insult you to your face?"

"Yes," John answered before elaborating, "he would often times say something witty, or reference something from an old American action film that would go over my head. Then he would, usually explain it to me later after calling my a plethora of strange curses that usually didn't go together."

"How long did the two of you know each other," she asked curiously.

"I was assigned to the _Pillar of Autumn_ at the age of fourteen, Johnson was thirty-seven at the time I believe. We served together on most ground missions, unless I was called away to assist in another attack from our flotilla, until he died on the Ark. He was seventy-eight when he died," John trailed off thinking of the Marine Sergeant that knew no fear.

"Damn," Palmer said, stunned that Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, was seventy-eight and keeping up with the Chief unaugmented. "How on Earth did he keep up with you? He wasn't even ODST, yet he was dropping with them and running with you. How the fuck did that work," Sarah pondered out loud.

But apparently the Master Chief knew the answer, "Johnson was an ORION Special Operations Commando."

"You're shitting me? He was a Spartan-I," she asked breathless. _But that's the only way he could keep operating at such an old age. And with precision. Damn._

"No ma'am," John replied, "he told me on _Alpha Halo_ when we lost a platoon to a group of Elites that ambushed us. I called him out about how he survived and he explained. But the ORIONs were more of the precursor to the ODST branch. Spartan-IIs get their name from being the second coming of the Spartans of old, the sons and daughters of Hercules."

"So backtracking again," Sarah said processing all the info. _Wow, I had no idea the ORIONs were pre-ODSTs. And I guess that makes since for the name's of the IIs, Chief is a walking demigod practically,_ "let's cover the part where you said you met Johnson at fourteen. Enlistment age is eightteen. How in the fuck did you enlist at fourteen? There's no way any recruiter would let you enlist that young."

"No ma'am," John nodded affirmatively, "no recruiter would let me enlist that young. I said that was my first posting, not when I was enlisted."

That stopped Sarah in her tracks as she watched the Master Chief turn to face her. They stayed like that for a few moments, neither talking just looking into each other's eyes. Sarah was looking for any hint of a joke, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes. As she came to the revelation of what he was saying she flipped out. "There is no fucking way," she crassly barked out at the Chief; lunging forward and grabbing his shirt, completely surprised John, "don't fuck with me Spartan. Because what you are insinuating is borderline cruel and offensive. It is also highly _illegal_."

"I told you I had no reasonable explanation to the dates on my file because there is none. What was done was done in a time of desperation, and is highly _classified_. Do not go opening doors that lead to dark places," John responded before removing her fist and backing up. He turned and continued on to the mess hall.

 _Oh, he's not getting away without explain some of this shit,_ she angrily thought. She began making her way after him, she caught up to him in the mess line as he was grabbing a tray. "So level with me here, and once again no fucking around? What age," she practically demanded.

"Six."

"Fucking six," she shouted lowly and a bit distorted, doing something he could only describe as a whisper scream.

"Affirmative."

"Well that fucking explains, literally, everything," Sarah sighed grabbing the bridge of her nose as the cooks loaded up their trays. "Fucking hell, no wonder the class II project is still kept top secret," she muttered before eyes going wide, "shit! Why would you tell me any of that? We could both be brought up on charges of sharing classified material."

She did the strange whisper scream as before and John shrugged, "you have the information. It doesn't take a genius to do math. On top of that I wanted you to understand what I truly meant by direct. I have lived a very strict military life, I will misunderstand and misinterpret a lot of gestures in the future. I am making sure that my Commanding officer understands that this is not intentional. Plus it is only top secret for people out of the military. The amount of people in the UNSC who know, or can extrapolate what we are is fairly high.

"10-4 Chief," Sarah said before the moved to grab a table. _Lasky, you and I are going to have a very long conversation when I am done with chow._ They sat down and began to eat. Chief enjoying the silent company as Sarah's mind raced a mile a minute. She glanced at her companion, _he saved the human race. Is possibly the most decorated soldier in the history of the UNSC. And is a FUCKING CHILD SOLDIER. Why,_ she thought looking the man up and down, _why was he chosen? Why were any of them chosen?_

She finally decided to break the silence with a bit a chit chat about random things aboard the _Infinity_ , along with policy changes he may not be familiar with after being on ice for 4 years

* * *

Lasky was finishing up in his office, about to break for his own lunch, when suddenly his door was thrown open by an angry Palmer. "What in the actual fuck Tom," she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

"Decomre Sarah," Tom shouted catching her by surprise, he was suddenly in Captain mode. "No matter how long we have been friends I am still your commanding officer. Now then, if you have enough sense to rephrase your question I'd be happy to answer you."

"John-117," Sarah said before pulling up a few documents with his information from her datapad. She quickly circled a date at the top of his enlistment form, "he was conscripted at age SIX. Don't try to bullshit me on this either," she glared at him, "he confirmed it for me."

"You always were one to pay attention to detail, that's why you got the jobs as commander; thought I'm surprised he confirmed it," Lasky said punching a few commands into his desk interface before Sarah heard the door lock and a slight buzzing sound. "What I am about to tell you stays between me and you. You are never to mention it, speak of it, or even think of it again. Before I begin, why did the Master Chief tell you that?"

"I-I let my temper get the better of me," Sarah explained apologetically, "he felt the need to convey the situation to clear up any issues he may have in interrupting didemus, puns, sarcasm, and other social oddities."

"I told you back in OCS that mouth of yours was gonna get you in trouble one day," Lasky muttered under his breath, but just loud enough for her to hear. Sarah knew when to not interrupt the Captain, especially with how much breathing room he gives the Spartan branch and her in particular.

"Back during the War of Insurrection things were looking pretty bad," Lasky began as wove the tale of the darkest secret in the UNSC, "the Insurrectionists were growing. They were converting ex-military personnel, they were getting better ships, more weapons. It was shaping up to be a long and bloody civil war. So a plan was hatched, to make another batch of super soldiers superior to anything else we had ever done."

Lasky took a breath before continuing, "the plan was to select recruits based on certain gene markers and physical attributes. They originally set out looking for kids of the retired ORIONs, initial estimates were about three-hundred, however only seventy-five were found."

 _They took seventy-five children and turned them into fucking murder machines,_ she thought bitterly before something struck her as odd, "Captain, you just said seventy-five found, and I assume taken. But the reports I've read about the Spartan-IIs and what they say in Spartan-IV indoc is that there were 33 original Spartan-IIs; what happened to the others?" She knew it was rude to interrupt but she had to know why, _why do I have a pit in my stomach after asking him that?_ Then John's voice rang out in her head, _**do not go open doors that lead into dark places.**_

"Thirty of them died in the bioaugmentation processes they under went before their postings at fourteen," Lasky said taking a shaking breath before continuing, "then another twelve were crippled for life and assigned menial tasks until a solution could be found."

Sarah didn't know what to say, or even think. Her mind was running a mile a minute and she couldn't for the life of her think of a response what she just learned, _**dark places,**_ John's voice rang out again.

"Now then," he said trying to get her to focus on him again, "this information is _highly_ _classified_. I only know it because of my position as Commanding Officer of this vessel. I was given the information by Lord Hood himself for when you came with questions about paperwork or aggravation when dealing with the Master Chief."

"Of course sir," she said, "if something like this ever got out. The fallout would be insane. The people wouldn't stand for it. Kidnapping, torture which I am sure they call training, forced conscription of a minor, and bioaugmentation of a minor? Whoever signed off on that would be hung in an instant."

"And considering quite a few high profile Admirals and Senators signed off on it, it is crucial we keep this between the three of us. Clear?"

"Sir," she nodded, "what is your opinion on all this?"

Lasky took a moment, and then answered, "what was done was cruel and barbaric, and yet," he paused again looking for the right words, "the cruelty and barbarism we would come to face in the Great War made what was done justified."

That caught Sarah off guard; but before she could comment, he held his hand up to stop her response continued.

"I say that very _lightly_ ," he growled out, "justification is not the same thing as morality. The UNSC finally had a justifiably reason for the creation of the Spartan-IIs, and all of High Command took a breath of fresh air at that. However it doesn't change the fact Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey head of UNSC Research and Development, Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky Commander and Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and finally Lord Admiral Terrence Hood Commander and Chief of the United Nations Space Command committed an **atrocious** act when the three proposed the idea."

"They truly have no idea how fucked up they made him," Sarah grumbled as she processed his reasoning. _Can't say I disagree but I don't. He is right, what was done allowed humanity to keep on chugging along. Doesn't change the fact that it was fucked up beyond belief._

"I believe they do," Lasky said in a way that pretty told Sarah he was keeping in contact with them in someway.

"Then get a memo out to them," she began a bit aggressively, "he's having trouble sleeping. He grabbed a stem last night around 0100 before working through the entire day. He honestly forgot what dreams where because his last postings kept him on fucking _cryo_ when he wasn't running ground operations or ship boarding."

"I will make sure they are made aware of it," lasky nodded, "until we can figure something out Commander, I have a request."

Seeing her nod, Thomas moved forward with his request, "please try to help him to the best of your ability. You are correct, many of the Spartan-IIs were kept in cryo when not in ground operations because they were thrusted upon the UNSC so fast we didn't have time to make proper accommodations for them. While other class-IIs have gotten use to the idea of sleep, it wasn't well received. It took months of semi-isolation, running them on their own private cruiser like Blue Team, or if they showed stable working relations with ground units such as Namio-019 and Kilo-Five. But it took time. Something we might be lacking."

"Lacking sir," she question but Lasky shook his head.

"Classified, very, very classified," he spoke out seriously with a bit a of a glare.

"Understood sir," Palmer said standing and leaving.

When the door closed Lasky looked down at a hidden screen on his desk, "we might have an ally in her."

Good, a synthesized voice rang out from a speaker mounted on the desk as well, keep your eyes on them both, this is an incredibly delicate situation, one wrong move and it's all over.

"Still I feel like we are kinda pushing them together, playing cupid and what not," Lasky said with a sigh, "it just feels wrong."

We aren't pushing them into a _relationship_ Captain, the voice spoke back again, we are pushing a companion on him. But not something as mundane as a relationship. He needs someone that has seen the darker side of war but remains human to see him through this. What ever they decided is up to them.

"Understood," Lasky confirmed before he cut the feed. _Sorry to stick ya in the middle of all this Sarah. But if anyone can break the Master Chief out of his shell it's you and that damn mouth of yours._ Lasky thought back to OCS when they met and became friends prior to their posting on _Infinity._ _You always were one to push people's buttons,_ he thought amused.

* * *

 _Ugh could this day get any worse,_ Sarah pondered making her way back to s-deck.

"Hello Sarah."

 _Why, why on earth did I say anything,_ she thought turning to face the voice, "hello Locke."

Spartan Jameson Locke, a tall black spartan wearing a silver like armor stood before here with helmet removed, "been a long time ma'am. I believe the last time we ran into each other it was in OCS."

"Yes, when I do believe I put your head into a wall for calling me," she paused in her triad trying to remember the words, "oh yes a 'bitch wanna be ODST pretending to be a Spartan'.

"Yeah about that," Locke began before handing over his datapad.

 _Oh great,_ she thought looking down, "so you are being posted to _Infinity_ for the next year, just fantastic. No idea why we need an _acquisitions_ specialist outside of the normal chain of command, but what do I know? I'm just a wanna be ODST Spartan." She practically shoved the datapad back into his hands and began to storm past him making her way to the elevator.

"Hey wait a minute," Locke said trying to catch her, while fumbling around with his datapad.

"Locke," she said stopping for a minute, "I am storming away right now. Kinda loses its effect if you follow me," she said sharply before continuing away.

"Ugh," Locke said face palming while another Spartan wearing purplish blue armor came up from behind him. "I was just trying to apologize. Whelp, you want to report to the bridge now or later," he asked the armored Spartan.

"Now would be better," a female voice came from the external speakers of the helmet, and the two began to make their way in the opposite direction to the bridge.

"I still don't know why you didn't just bug out after you dropped me off," Locke questioned while they walked.

"I was allowed a bit of leave time before my return to Kilo-Five," the female Spartan spoke calmly, "I plan on using a bit of that."

"Family reunion?"

"Affirmative," she said as they reached the bridge and broke to attention before Captain Lasky. "Spartan Agents Sentzke and Locke sir! Request permission to come aboard," she asked with perfect discipline.

Lasky didn't immediately answer right away, instead he studied both of them for a good few minutes before answering, "granted. Under the conditions that you explain your presence Agent Naomi. I don't have orders for you."

"Sir," she began stiffly, "I was on assignment with Agent Locke. We were both making our way back to Earth when the orders were sent up. I was allowed two weeks of leave for a very belated family reunion sir."

"I see," he said taking a moment. _She's up to something, I'll have to update the other two later this evening,_ "very well. You will both be given officer's quarters on s-deck for the remainder of your stay. You may request entry into the simulation runs tomorrow for the Spartan-IV assessments," he said typing a memo to the Chief. "But I will leave the final decision up to the Chief and Commander Palmer. I'd suggest you be there tomorrow at 0400 for the readiness inspection, might win over some good graces. Both of you are dismissed."

"Sir," they both said before nodding and spinning in an about face before making their way off the bridge.

Once they were out of sight Lasky turned to the orange bomber pilot like AI, "keep an eye on them Roland. I have a hunch about something," he said before pulling up his datapad and sending an encrypted message.

Understood Captain, the AI responded making sure they were always in his security footage feeds.

 **Line Break**

 _Just great,_ Sarah thought arriving at the dark office, _where the fuck is the Chief._ Turning on the light she sat down before interfacing her datapad with the desk interface. Instantly multiple monitors and hard light consoles appeared all over her desk.

A email appeared from John;

Commander,

I took an early dinner as per-request of Captain Lasky. You may find me in the chow hall when you are done.

She sent him a message saying she would join him if time allowed, _meeting with Lasky took longer than I thought._ She began to finish up her paperwork starting with the schedule for the fireteams simulation runs tomorrow, along with the memo for the readiness inspection in the morning. _I hope to god Locke doesn't show up,_ she made sure not to include him on the inspection and simulation run memo and schedule.

She then turned moved to another screen and began to write up a new field order before sending it to the Captain to be forward on to High Command after his approval, _I really hope I can get Lasky to sign off on this, the Chief's idea and logic was pretty flawless as far as the bio-suit goes. Need to make sure I stay on top of this._ She added a few follow-up reminders to her calendar.

Finally she pulled up John's requisitions and began to approved them based on budget. _Looks like a lot of Spartans are going to get flight certified,_ she thought looking over the request for stealth _Prowlers_ along with a laundry list of materials for further training.

 _BDUs, rucksacks, combat knives, Mjolnir repair kits, a whole slew of weapons slings, and,_ she paused as she caught the last item. "Sweet mother of god! If you would understand I'd kiss you Master Chief," she practically shouted to herself. The last item for requisition was for all Spartan-IVs to be outfitted with ONI's new Artemis.

Sarah had seen a few of the fireteam leaders had them, but she had never thought about rolling it out to all Spartans, "but then again, I wasn't prepared to train them to operate alone." Which was true. The Spartan-IVs being a new divisions in the UNSC weren't being trained currently to operate alone on extended missions; they were being trained on how to handle their new augmentations and team building.

 _And that is where the training he and the other Spartan-IIs had that we did not,_ she trailed on in her thoughts. She signed the last of the forms before sending them off to the Captain and financing for final approval.

"Damn already five," she said glancing at the clock. She quickly shut down her consoles and snatched her datapad up before heading to the chow hall. _At least we don't have to change deck levels to grab a bite,_ she thought remembering back to her stations of small ships that usually only had one or two galleys for the whole crew, _plus these guys know Spartans eat a lot._

Which was true, with the denser muscle mass and higher metabolism, Spartan's tended to need twice or three times the normal amount of food compared to regular Marines/Navy personnel and ODSTs. So the _Infinity_ came stocked with a special galley and chow hall strictly for the Spartans, regular personnel had to be invited to eat there, _guess there are perks to being a super soldier_.

As she opened the door and stepped in she made a beeline for the food line and loaded up. It didn't take her to long as there were only one hundred Spartans aboard the _Infinity_ currently, _now then if I was a super tall, socially challenged, child super soldier, where would I eat._ She scanned the room looking for the Chief and when she saw him in the corner she smiled for a moment noticing his face was buried in the datapad on the table along with a device she didn't recognize, before her face was filled with dread.

 _Who is the blonde in purple-blue armor sitting in front of him? And why is god's name is he sitting there,_ she questioned internally before trudging her way to the table. "Chief," she spoke up as she reach the table, "mind if I join you?"

"Not at all Commander," he said without looking up, attention still fully focused on the two devices in front of him. Then before she could react he pushed the chair next to him out with his foot and into her reaching hand. As she sat down, John began introductions without looking up, "Commander Palmer this is Naomi-010, and-"

However she cut him off the with the second introduction, "-Jameson Locke, Spartan-IV douche bag and ONI operative."

"I was trying to apologize earlier," Locke said speaking up for himself a bit embarrassed.

"History of some sort," the Chief asked, but not to anyone specially.

"Locke has a funny way with words," Palmer said not caring to elaborate. "And apology not accepted Locke," she said turning to face the other Spartan-IV.

"Figures," Locke mumbled.

"So you are the new Spartan Commander," Naomi said before extending her hand, "you will have to excuse the Chief. He can be a bit of a stick in the mud, I am Naomi Sentzke."

Sarah took the offered hand in a strong shake, "Pleasure, Sarah Palmer Commander of the Spartan branch. So, I take it you're a Spartan-II?" Naomi nodded to the question, Sarah continued after her confirmation, "so how come you have a last name and he doesn't?"

"I have read my file, while he has refused to. Repeatedly over the last few hours. I even have his file with me," she said a bit aggravated.

"As I explained a multiple times, I have no interest in what it might say," John spoke up, his face never leaving the two devices.

Sarah finally got a good look at them and noticed a banged up, tattered old tablet sending files over to his datapad, _wonder what he is transferring that is so important?_

"You are impossible," Naomi said leaning back a bit, obviously frustrated with him.

"So," Sarah began breaking the tension that was forming, "whatcha transferring from that old ass tablet?"

"A few more of my older missions for simulation runs after tomorrow's runs, plus one extra for me at another time."

"Really," this time Locke spoke up and the table gave him their attention, Sarah a bit bitterly from her glare. "Captain Lasky said you might let us in on the simulation runs, I was hoping we could join the others."

"I was informed by the Captain via message," John said plainly. "I am fine with your participation in the exercise tomorrow under certain conditions, but it is up to the Commander first."

"I wanna know what the conditions are first," Sarah asked looking to the Chief. He nodded before tapping a few icons pausing the transfer and Sarah thought she saw the inside of a ship she didn't recognize, _what ship is that?_

As he looked up he regarded his old Spartan-II teammate and the new Spartan-IV, "Naomi, you and Locke will run the assessment simulations together, but with the armor restrictions set to Mjolnir mark-V and mark-VI respectively."

"That seems a little harsh doesn't it Chief," Locke asked a bit surprised by the conditions.

"Commander Palmer and Alpha-Nine have both run one respectively with those conditions set and survived," John said with a bit of praise to both his Commander and the ODST fireteam that became Spartan-IVs.

"I wouldn't give us too much credit there Chief," John heard and turned around to face the voice of Sergeant Buck, "you were running those missions with us. I doubt we will do as good tomorrow." Buck then nodded to the commander before turning to the new arrivals, "Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, resident badass of Alpha-Nine."

"Your reputation proceeds you Sergeant Buck," Naomi said with a smirk, "Vasily said you were one of the best ODST Sergeants until ONI snagged you for the IV project."

"Oh really," Buck said with a smirk, "and how is old scar-face doing beautiful?"

"He is good," she said with a laugh, "though I doubt him or Veronica would appreciate you flirting with me."

Buck just about freaked when she said his lover's name, "one, stating a fact isn't flirting. Two, how the fuck do you know Veronica? Or that we are even together?"

She smirked before tapping a marking on her right shoulder plat.

"You are with ONI," he asked and with the nod he sighed. "Fucking spooks get prettier and prettier every year," he mumbled before turning to the other one, "and you?"

"Spartan Jameson Locke," the other Spartan said. _Seems my reputation proceeds me as well,_ he thought by the look on Buck's face.

Buck quickly hid it before going for a handshake, "pleasure Locke."

"Same."

"So you two want in on the sim runs tomorrow eh," Buck asked grabbing an empty chair from the table and sitting down. "Not sure if ya heard, but it's gonna be hell," Buck said with a smile.

"You two made it through," the blonde Spartan-II shot back.

"Please," Sarah threw in her two cents, "the Chief carried us the whole way. You really have no idea what you are in for."

"Anything he can do, we can do," Locke said with stubborn authority.

"You are correct," John said speaking up drawing the attention of the table.

"I am," Locke was taken back for a moment surprised.

"You are. What I have done is possible, meaning anyone with the right equipment and mind set could do it, And if you so wish Spartan Locke and Naimo, you may join in training for the remained of your stay. I plan on having these Spartans up to snuff before we head out again in a month. " John elaborated.

"Way to throw a dead cat into a party Chief. You're gonna run me and my boys ragged aren't ya," Buck muttered.

Chief was thinking back to Johnson and how he would discipline marines and smirked, "sounds like you missed the message I gave Commander Palmer before the _High Charity_. Also sounds like you don't have the guts to be a Spartan."

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncles," Buck laughed. "You can smack talk, you son of a bitch. Alright," he smirked sticking out his hand, "Alpha-Nine will beat its time on the _Library_ and take top time on _High Charity_. If that happens you buy us drinks until we drown next shore leave."

John looked at the offending hand for a moment before looking at Bucks smirking face, _well that had some what of the desired effect. But what do I do in this situation?_

"Can't take what ya dish out Master Chief," Buck taunted back, unknowingly hitting a competitive button within the Spartan-II

"And if you don't," John asked moving his arm forward but not grasping his hand just yet.

"We buy all the rounds for you till you drown," Buck said with a smirk that spoke volumes of internal brilliance.

A single thought went through everyone pretest minds, _did he forget Spartan-IIs metabolize is so high they can't get drunk?_

John nodded, the perfect poker face and shook his hand, "agreed."

 _John you sneaky bastard,_ Naomi thought amused as he was going to take the ex-ODST for a sucker. "So what mission are you transferring John," Naomi asked, and suddenly regretted it as he went stiff as a bored.

"My most recent engagement," he said with a frown.

"Would you mind if we viewed it," she asked.

Suddenly everyone's attention was on him and John felt really uncomfortable, "I would rather keep this one private for now. I am merely transferring all my data from the older tablets to the new datapad."

Naomi was about to press when Sarah spoke up, "understood Chief. You are allowed your privacy."

"Thank you Commander," John nodded to her and missed the glare sent by Naomi. "If you will excuse me I will take my leave." John grabbed his tablet and datapad as he stood up and walked out of the chow hall.

The others all felt uncomfortable, most of all Naomi, _Siren told you not to push him. That he would be different. Did you listen? No of course not!_

Buck watched as the Chief stood and looked between his full trey he just put down and the retreating man, "gorram! Watch my trey guys!." Buck stood and followed after the man, _damn it. Now I'm gonna have cold meat loaf. You better thank me for this Chief._

He finally caught up to John who had taken a moment of paused to stare at the Earth. "She's a beauty," he said grabbing John's attention from he kept his focus on it, until he was shoulder to shoulder with the Spartan-II. "This view right here," Buck said turning but nodding in its direction, "this is what we fought so hard for. Now we've all seen some shit. Hell, Chief I couldn't tell you the countless number of civilians I couldn't save. Or how many men that died under my command. Chief there isn't a person alive that wasn't affected by the war in some shape way or form."

Buck turned back to look out at the Earth once more, "don't let that lose consume you. Remember nothing last forever. At some point we have to let go, now that doesn't mean forget about em. Just let them be at peace, and remember the good times."

John was silent through the whole impromptu speech. "I appreciate the concern Sergeant Buck. And I apologize for any awkward situations from the past few days and those to come. I am aware of my lack of social skills."

John paused for a moment before finding the right words to finish up with, "but this is not something I wish anyone to see. It is my greatest failure." _The day I lost her,_ John thought before turning and making his way to his room.

However he was stopped by Buck, "hen. Guess what they say about you Spartan-IIs isn't true at all."

John turned to glance at the ex-ODST and Buck continued, "they say you guys don't have hearts. Which is bullshit because whether or not you will admit it loved Cortana. Maybe not romantically, but love comes in many different forms. You lost a true loved one Chief on that day. A day you felt powerless to stop it."

John nodded looking at Buck with respect, _he knows what this feels like. This has happened to him, I wonder who he lost?_

"What you're feeling," Buck continued, "is anger. Anger at yourself for not being better. Not being faster, not being stronger. But Chief there is no changing the past. We just gotta keep moving on till it doesn't hurt."

"When did yours stop hurting," John asked curious.

"Never has," Buck said turning with a smirk, "just gets duller as the days go by. Makes me cherish what I have though. Makes every day forward something nice. Good night Master Chief," Buck said heading back to the chow hall.

"John-117," he said with a nod to the Sergeant.

"10-4, John," Buck said with a wave, but kept walking without looking back. _So glad he can't see the shocked look on my face right now,_ Buck thought with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

* * *

"So he's not sleeping well," Halsey asked with a frown. Lasky nodded and she sighed, "we just have to go through it like with Blue Team."

"But with the alterations made to him he is experiencing a vast array of emotions," Lasky continued after her, "and from what Roland can see, anger the most prevalent. Not sure running him like Blue Team will be a good idea."

"Anger? What is he angry about? Plus he seemed fine to me yesterday," Hood asked speaking up while Serin nodded along wanting to know as well.

"Roland has picked up a spike in neural activity in the Limbic system," Lasky confirmed, "and while I can only guess, since he is so withdrawn from everyone, I would guess he is angry with himself."

"For losing Cortana," Halsey added with a sigh. "I should've picked up on it when we you sent him to get his new armor Terrance. He was acting very strangely. Hell he even hugged me."

"Should I send a new set of orders to Locke," Serin asked the Doctor a look of sad resolve.

"No, not just yet anyway," Hood said with a bit of a smirk, "but you can explain why Naomi-010 is on _Infinity_. Orders were only sent down for Locke."

"They were on assignment together, Serin said waving them off. _For once I am glad for my Spartan-II training. Thank you for the best damn poker face._ "Figured they could use the family reunion. Hell I still haven't seen him and would like took," Serin added hoping to throw them off.

"Yes that's a good idea," Halsey shot back, her tone dripping sarcasm. She nodded to Lasky who played the chow hall security footage, "the entirety of their meeting last night was spent with her pushing his file down his throat. To which many times he politely declines and gives a valid reason for each. Then she proceeds to pester him about a private mission log. John was so confused by her change in personality and the feelings of anger he can't properly process that he left."

Hood nodded along, while Osman sighed, "I'll speak with her. I did give her time off to just see an old...family member again. But I didn't want her to pester him."

Lasky watched Osman carefully, just like an interrogator would a suspect. He was watching for any sign of lying and so far he had found none, _until now anyway,_ he thought with dread. _She is lying about Naomi's purpose on this ship. And about the file, why is she so dead set on that damn file?_

Hood and Halsey seemed to buy the lie from what Lasky could tell and the meeting progressed. "So what do we do about the anger then," Osman asked getting the conversation back on track.

"For now we try and treat it medically," Halsey said, "and no I don't mean with drugs," Halsey shot Osman a dirty look. "John needs to speak about his experiences and what they have done to him. We can't forget that John's first posting was when he was fourteen, and when not in combat runs he was kept in cryo. John has the mind and body of a early thirties man who is about to be going through not just puberty, but through an emotional roller coaster of things he's never felt before. He needs someone to talk to about these things. If he just compartmentalize them like his training has taught him, he will have a mental break down."

"Suggestions," Hood asked nervously. _A rampaging Spartan. Not just any Spartan but the Master Chief. Dear God._

"I have a degree in psychology," Halsey suggested.

"Only if we get audio logs of all the sessions. I also want Lasky and Roland both listening in to make sure they aren't tampered with," Osman said with a growl.

"I would agree as well Catherine," Hood said with an edge in his voice.

"As much as you two despise me, no matter what you think of me, I still love all of my children," she said with a look of desperation on her face, "please. Let me help John."

"Agree to the terms," Osman and Hood spoke.

"Done," Halsey immediately answered.

The other two nodded before sighing off leaving Halsey and Captain Lasky in her office. Lasky was about to leave when Halsey spoke up, "Hood did a good job selecting you to replace him Captain."

Lasky turned to face her with, "why do you say that?"

"You still have a heart," she said with a sigh. "Hood may laugh and smile with the other Admirals up there, may preach the safety and security of the world. But remember, he like me was one of the original of the Unholy Three. Parangosky picked Serin for the same reason. But as I have told Serin who refuses to listen I will tell you as well. Do not ever trust the three of us."

"So you're not offended by the conditions set forth," Lasky asked a bit surprised.

"Not one bit," she turned and began heading over to a workbench lighting up the hard light display. "Once every two weeks," she said as she began to work, "set it for one of his off days. It will help give him some structure on those days."

"Will do," Lasky said finally taking leave.

 _The world is after you John_ , she thought typing away and opening a file on an old secured server. The file red John-117, _oh John. I hope I can make you ready for what you are about to face. Another war is coming, I just hope you can face the war of your fate. ONI wants you, High Command wants you, and I can't figure out what for. But I'll do my best to keep their hands off you._

 **AN:**

So hope everyone has a good thanksgiving!

Couple of things, I am not a psychologist but I will try to get as best information for this story as possible via google. I also am not in the military so I will have some problems with their off war duties. please forgive me for that. And finally I added a government conspiracy! Because it will play well with the final outcome.

As for Naomi, I feel like with the help from Kilo-Five she would be a bit more open. Not as open as others as she was still a bit guarded and spoke guardedly. Never too much information and I really hope to betray that better next chapter.

Blue Team is still probably two chapters away atleast but they will get here.


End file.
